Sunday, November 29, 2015

Clue, Doctor Who-iffied.

First of all I know there is a commercially available version of this game, and I'd love to play it. I'm not doing this for any profit, nor will I be pasting it to a game board. I'm just hoping I can come up with a way to play it online with some folks in a virtual world I spend some time in.

I also know of a blog from 2013 ([How To] - Make Doctor Who Clue) where the poster did why I'm doing, sort of. I took the game board from that blog, and swapped out locations. Below is my version of the game board:


Rather than like Clue, none of the players become any of the characters. Also unlike clue, there is no weapon involved. Instead of room, murderer, and weapon, we're trying to guess which location, which companion, and, of course what villain.

I decided on nine companions and nine villains.mostly because trying to narrow down the companions down to only six would have been painful. Even with the 9 I've picked there will be those that will wonder why I picked the ones I have rather than the reader's favorite.

One person has to be involved in the game only in that they will be the only one keeping track of the actual location companion and villain combination. Let's call them the moderator. How they determine the three conditions that will determine the winner of the game is up to the moderator, but some form of random generation is advisable.

The players may start the game at any of the eight small TARDIS spaces that line the edge of the playing board. These also serve as teleports, from one TARDIS to another. To move, roll 2D6 (2 six sided dice) and move up to the total number that was rolled in any direction you wish from the square you start on. Once you are in one of the locations you always stop. At that point the player can make a guess with the location they are in and then who the companion and villain are. At the point the moderator will inform only the player guessing which of their guesses are incorrect. This will potentially narrow down the location quickly, but finding out the location and staying there to make guess after guess and like have everyone making a bee line for that location.Therefore if you start a turn in a location you must move out of it and head to another location.

Locations -
As clearly marked on the game board: Dalek City, Battle of Hastings, the United Nations HQ, the space-bound Orient Express, The Library, TARDIS control/console room, Nerva Beacon, UNIT HQ, and finally the Titanic.

Companions
Easy enough just to give visual reference for these -



Villains:
And same for these -

Friday, November 27, 2015

I Don't Need A New Laptop, But...

Wish I could afford one, and can't help but look and drool sometimes.

Today I got an email from Acer. First one I remember ever getting, which lead me to looking at laptops that which I really, really would love to be able to buy. The top of the line, no way in hell can I afford these machines start at $1500 is the Predator 15 G9-591-70VM Gaming Laptop, way too rich for my blood at the moment. Then there's the Aspire VN7-572G-53E7 Gaming Notebook, which comes with a $700 price tag, which is $100 off the regular price.

Predator 15 G9-591-70VM Dream Machine

This, of course lead me to look to see what my local Microcenter had to offer. The ASUS ROG GL551JW-DS71 15.6" Gaming Laptop looks awesome, but at $950 no way am I buy that soon. Even the "open box" available at the moment is $900. But, more in my potential budget, if my arm ever got twisted by one of my current machines dying is the Acer Aspire E5-491G-70PX 14" Laptop. It doesn't have the back lit keyboard of the gaming rigs, but otherwise looks to hold it's own against the other two machines. The $650 price is more than I have to spend,though. Lastly they have the Toshiba Satellite C75D-C7232 17.3" Laptop, with a $500 price tag. If I was actually in the market for a new machine this is probably what I'd end up with at this point.


Toshiba Satellite C75D-C7232

To put things in perspective, while I'm making significantly more than you're average McDonalds burger slinger, I'm still making less than the $15 an hour that they're asking for.

Anyone got a million dollar lottery ticket they don't need?