Russian Pirates Rushin' Goals in Windrose

The other day, my youngest looked over my shoulder while I was playing Windrose. At the time I was running around my mishmash rock-and-thatch villa with a dock, goofy giant rock arches, and a farm full of hot peppers and flax. He seemed a bit shocked and asked me what this game was (how could dad be playing a game he had never seen or heard of before). 

My homage to the Wasatch Mountains?

Windrose is, as I told him, the newest survival game, but with pirates, and he was like "survival game?" Now, THAT question, threw me off . . . like he had never heard of survival games before? I mean of course he had! So I took the opportunity to remind him of my library of games on Steam.

Ever heard of Valheim? Survival game but Vikings. Ever heard of V Rising? Survival game but Vampires. Ever heard of Dune Awakening? Survival game but Dune  Ever heard of Ark? Survival game but Dinosaurs. Ever heard of 7 Days to Die? Survival game but Zombies. (I could have kept going on . . . but he got the point . . . of course he had heard of survival games.)

"Why do you have so many survival games?"

Uh . . . they're fun? (I think sometimes he likes questioning me just to see what I would say . . . I should have told him it was all research for a VR Survival game, like Green Hell or A Township Tale, but I would have been lying. It would have been pretty great to work on a VR Survival Game though. Ain't gonna lie.)

So, Windrose is fun. I like it. No one should be surprised I like it, especially after having so much fun in the Demo a couple of months ago. When we saw that Windrose had a full early access release, the entirety of Team Spode (minus Mr. Spode himself, love you, Joey) jumped on board and started going overboard on the newest pirate-themed survival game.

There is a lot more to do here than in the Demo! The quests have all been fleshed out. Factions, Big Boss Fights at the biome end caps, ship crafting, skill trees, new enemies, new exploration types, farming, and more and more were all added in. In fact, two full, entire quest areas of stuff to do were added in, with a fourth promised in the wings!

Dylan and I are once again roleplaying it up and having fun together. Dylan named his character Boris the Blade and suggested Russian Gangsters. I loved it, but my Russian gangsta' ain't typical, see . . . I've been watching a metric ton of hockey and now that my beloved Utah Mammoth are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I named my pirate Sergy the Slapshot after Mikhail Sergachev, my favorite Russian hockey player. 

Close enough for hockey pirates . . .

And of course, what ship does Sergy the Slapshot sail?  The mighty Utah Mammoth!

Love the name detail on the back of the ship to be honest . . .

What weapon and armor set does Sergy the Slapshot don?  Definitely the heavily padded Conquistador look with as close to a hockey stick as I can get in game . . . the good ol' Executioner's Halberd.

I get called for High Sticking a lot . . .

Heated Rivalry jokes aside . . . our Russian Hockey Duo is ready to scorch the seas! (Thanks for the joke, John.) 

So many muscles . . . so much heated rivalry . . .

So, I'll be posting more thoughts about the game as we play, but just wanted to get it out there so the readers of the Friendly Necromancer knew what was fascinating me these days.

Happy Dueling!

Chemo Round 2 and a visit from the Austin Crew

Team Tom! It's been a long time, but I have news to share, so I'm going to get the bad stuff out of the way. I've had a little pain in my back and the latest CT Scan confirms that I've some new evidence of cancer in the lining of my left lung. The result is that we're going to do another short round of chemo and monitor how it goes. It's upsetting, but it is what it is. I had a nice 8-month stint of nothing but cancer shrinking or stability. Let's get that back.

Had I made this post a few days ago, I probably wouldn't have even talked about the pain or cancer and instead just let you all know that life has been pretty cool, actually! My good buddies from Austin paid me a surprise visit last weekend, and it was so good to see them and hang out. 

The Austin crew hanging out in Gilgal Garden

The story: Renee and the uber wife had been planning a surprise for months and kept it from me. After I had an immunotherapy infusion last Friday, my wife said, "Let's go to Spaghetti Factory!" When we arrived, she said she had a reservation for five. I'm like, what?!?! Are the kids coming?!?! She just rolled with it and let me believe the story I was making up for her.

After a few minutes of waiting, Mercedes ( good ol' Art of Warlord) comes up from behind and asks me if I dropped something (presenting me with an old Beckett's Magazine Writer Card of mine). I just stared with disbelief. Is this real life? Next thing you know, Kayly (good ol' Mythdust) sneaks in, and I'm surrounded by my old buddies. THE COOL KIDS CREW FROM KI! 

Took the crew to my favorite local game / card store

My non-plans for laying around all weekend were suddenly gone and instead we went all up and down the Wasatch Front visiting game store, seeing sites, and catching up with what's been going down. 

Just a tiny bit of snow at Snowbasin this year

What an absolute honor it was to have them come in to pay me a visit and what great timing. I'm going to need that boost going into another round of chemo. Here we go again!

Happy Dueling!