Make dungeon using Gemini ayy eye?

 Hmm. 

That yt guy … ex teacher, made the exaggerated giant axe barbarian game. Used

“Make a 10 room isometric dungeon” using Gemini ai. Too cartoony, but decent. 

Also easy to auto gen random characters. 

Tenkar - isle of dread, other classic modules

Isle of Dread  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_onwGtVh_v4&t=206s

• Comments on yt  here are gold. 
• Talking about needing to be higher lvl than stated. 
• Clerics using purify water, create food… more than healbots in older days. 

NIGHTS DARK TERROR

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DvvpBcOBniI

TOMB OF HORROS 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JIv0cadadMo

And https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MRYSAl-aJNc

B2 KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl2v9zrgq4g

Tenkar analysis of White Plume Mtn, plus list of modules

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Of_G_4hOhAE&pp=0gcJCRsMAYcqIYzv&ra=m

List of good ones (higher level) from the AD&D era:

• White Plume Mountain
• Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
• Dungeon Mag's "Mud Sorcerer's Tomb"
• Dwellers of the Forbidden City
• Expedition to the Barrier Peaks <<-- nope, can't do the space lasers in D&D.
•  D1-Q1, but D3 is the difficult Drow city of Erelhai-Cinlu, so I think go get the Greyhawk grognard's version... same for Q1 replacement. 
• Beyond the Crystal Caves, Dungeonland/Through the Magic Mirror, Phaoroh, Palace of the Silver Princess, Ghost Tower of Inverness, Isle of Dread, To Find a King, The Tree of Life, Castle Amber, various early Dragon Mag modules, etc

Commenter KDA Fan writes - 

BEST. MODULE. EVER. Hands down. IMO, anyway. . . . "Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" and Dungeon Mag's "Mud Sorcerer's Tomb" come close, but not close enough. Lagging a bit behind them, for a tie at third, are "Dwellers of the Forbidden City", "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks", and D1-Q1 (an epic arc of adventures, but which require a lot of heavy lifting in additions by the DM: especially Erelhai-Cinlu in D3 and the worlds reached in Q1). Tomb of Horrors is Tomb of Horrors: more an endgame/test. Various other good games (Beyond the Crystal Caves, Dungeonland/Through the Magic Mirror, Phaoroh, Palace of the Silver Princess, Ghost Tower of Inverness, Isle of Dread, To Find a King, The Tree of Life, Castle Amber, various early Dragon Mag modules, etc) are great, but not quite top flight. . . . A cleric along w/light solves a LOT of logistics problems in WPM, especially as they can AUTOMATICALLY have CONTINUAL Light, so long as they select it (a commonly chosen spell, due to it having multiple uses) as the module is 5th-10th. I always felt Light and Continual Light should be higher level spells, due to ubiquitous usefulness including defensive and offensive potential (CL on eyes is blindness: NASTY!) Always felt the anti-turn amulets were a really cheap-out move, but evil clerics could theoretically make them, I suppose, tho no standard spell allowed it. Can't remember if the amulets were recoverable, but by GAWDS they should have been worth a fortune, if they were. Sir Bluto, the endgame threat of a trap/trick setup involving aquatic vehicles, always unfortunately made me think of Popeye. Did ANYONE EVER trust Quesnef? Theoretically, if the DM allowed the party to be 10ths across the board, a lot of this was pretty easy. BIG difference between a party averaging 7 or 8, and a line of straight 10s. Even Nix and Nox shouldn't be that big a deal (IIRC, didn't the module allow for adding 2 more Efreeti if the party made light work of things? I no longer have it, as nearly everything I had was stolen early this year, so can't check anymore).

Osr common house rule

 A way to cast a few spells at level 1 for magic user (instead of the 1 only). They said using "spell points" instead of a single spell slot was common.  

15:45 time on Old School Rules, Judges Guild Y https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=copt1OL-BC8&t=1376s

Ancient Gauls - Cult of the Severed head

 Time. 6:24  

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=copt1OL-BC8&t=1376s

The real historical ones put several heads on poles, carried them around on horses. The harder the foe, the more they wanted the head (and eventually turned into a skull). Pretty insane. 

Osr trap escape, monster avoid ideas

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=copt1OL-BC8&t=1376s

Old school rules yt with azmountaineer. Time 22:55, pg. 36 of “the escaping of monsters & traps” from Judges Guild: Installment Y  

• Caltrops to outrun monsters 
• Dropped food, monsters non intelligent will be distracted 
• One or Two men jumping on (grabbing) a bad magic user to slow him down. 
• Hinged pit trap 
• Staggering short lines of players to get to the one fallen player
• Gaseous form to seep thru cracks
• Telekinesis spell to open it
• If only have a teleport self, other player use shrink potion then u can teleport two or three for one or something. 
• When can afford, hire dwarves to spot traps and elves to spot secret doors   … those two walk in front. Elf hireling also great in woods. 
• Shorter PCs in front lines, allows fighting from behind (??)
• Sombies and skeletons can be foiled by dispel magic spell. Or protection from evil spell. 
• Trick players or vice versa - 
• Cast continual light on a nonmagic ring
• Carve runes in a nonmagic oak staff
• Large gem in end of metal rod
• …
• Make classes dress like another class

Higher LEVEL TRICKS

• Wish spell - in the wvent of a death, whole party transported out of the dungeon alive and well! 
• Coat items in mithril to protect from fire n acid
• Hire a Sage, who specializes in monsters 
• Hire ppl and make armories to protect loot from thugs and jealous adventurers 
• 
  

Conan Red Nails = tsr The Lost City

1. Conanin Red Nails  

 Really?! I don’t recall the multiple factions living underground in the Conan book… gotta reread. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HqL0xYYwYx0

Lichhouse says Moldvay (of B/X fame) wrote The tsr “The Lost City”… you know the one w the golden mask priest-mage(?) and purple cover. 

2. Conan story of “The slithering Shadow” aka “Xuthal of the Dusk”. Also ties into the module “the lost city”. 

Ray H stop motion - art of monster faces

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgUk5QIB-ug

The Thumbnail I want. 

And to practice drawing. 

Notice the attention to the nose and mouth regarding the attitude and vibe. 

Medusa the sneer. 

The cyclops has a large nose, distinctive. 

The Kraken, a small nose but that big almost beaklike upper lip… sort of lije a kappa maybe. 

Griffe = Claw, Griffin must get its name from that

If griffe means claw in French, then it sure seems like griffin comes from that. 

 From Wordsmith:

griffonage

PRONUNCIATION:

(grif-uh-NAHZH)

 

MEANING:

noun: Careless or illegible handwriting; scrawl.

 

ETYMOLOGY:

From French griffonner (to scribble or scrawl), from griffe (claw). Earliest documented use: 1832.

 

NOTES:

English calls an indecipherable scrawl chicken scratch, and French clearly agrees: griffonage comes from griffe (claw). Medical schools probably require doctors to take a solemn oath to maintain a prescribed level of griffonage on every prescription.

Game book covers

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsFKJjA70o&t=238s

At time 3:50

Lotsa Lone Wolf covers. Looks fun. Some blaxk and white art too inside. 

The Pixies - Some top songs, some trivia

 Great concert, great song set,  from recent - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=THD_uxZOpoM&t=3283s&pp=2AHTGZACAQ%3D%3D&ra=m

Dave Grohl of foo fighters and nirvana talking real good about The Pixies… Surfer Rosa a perfect album  and he is serious- https://m.youtube.com/shorts/1eqTITSYCSA

Trivia - Frank Black’s real name is Charles?!?!??

The Pixies are super flipping good. Love 'em. Love the weird merging of surf rock and whatever the heck it is that is their music. Some say punk... I guess yeah a little bit, but so much more. So very 1990's alt rock. Was the Brit snobbery around music, but friendly to US Alt rock, was that all part of it or just my personal bias view? Those Brits, they hated "heavy metal" or whatever they were calling all hard music... UNLESS it had a bunch of weird alt-rockness to it, then they loved it. Like The Pixies, The Breeders, Nirvana, etc. Hey you kids know about the hidden track on the Nevermind Album, right? The Brits didn't know till I showed 'em. :) So I say. 

I like this trivia about Cactus, via Rolling Stone Mag: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-pixies-songs-10588/9-cactus-228419/

• ‘Cactus’
• Black Francis tackled topics that few songwriters dared to go anywhere near, including incst, mutilation, Hebrew numerology, STDs, alien abduction and sxual perversion. "Cactus" is about a guy in prison asking his girlfriend to "bloody your hand on a cactus tree/ Wipe it on a dress and send it to me." Oddly enough, it's one of the sweeter tunes on Surfer Rosa and the closest thing they really had to a love song. David Bowie covered the song on his 2002 LP Heathen. 

• ‘Gouge Away’
• Is about Samson and Delilah. The hair being cut and all that. 

• 'Here comes your Man"
• Written when Francis was 15 they say. Redone later. Awesome song. 

• ‘Wave of Mutilation’

• The ... 1980s, ... stories about Japanese salarymen su-c-ding themselves and their families ...driving off piers "into the OooOcean" b/c "failed" in business. Francis wrote "Wave of Mutilation" about it they say. Freaky. 
• The slower version "UK" version, is supposedly played in concerts along with the original. Hmmph, wouldn'ta thought. 

• 'Debaser' - was about that nearly 100 year old French movie Un Chien Andalou where the opening scene is slicing someone's eye open (I think really a cow eye). Gross. And Francis wrote a song about it... it "debased the movie lalala standards stuff". And they played video clips during tours 2009-2011, so I guess it's true. Yikes. 

• 'Where is my mind' is about Francis going scuba diving in the Carrib' b4 forming the band. Fish "chased him around" and freaked him out they say. Kinda funny. But yeah, hearing this on the Fight Club helped bring it back... I remember hearing it on college radio a little before along with a few of their other songs here and there. 

• 'Hey' - was some popular 2005 era youtube vid made by some random young chicks. It's about bible stuff and whores. Weird. Can't even find it on youtube. 
• But I did find this acoustic where, shock I had forgotten, the twin chick Kim Deal rejoined for a bit b4 hers and Francis's egos musta clashed too much and she left again (or something): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQXU8bHFVo&pp=ygUPcGl4aWVzIGhleSAyMDA1
• HOLD UP, Wikiped saves me on the info, Deal stayed with 'em for a good while. Says: 
•  leading to a 2004 reunion and sold-out world tours. Deal left in 2012, and was replaced with Kim Shattuck for their 2013 tour. She was later replaced with Paz Lenchantin, who became a full member in 2016
• I coulda swore Francis and Deal were too at odds to stick together that long, but hey, they did it, cool. 

========================Some from random folks=====

kingclover

1. Alec Eiffel
2. Spin off groups
1. Tipp City – The Amps
2. Dedicated- The Amps
   I Am Decided – The Amps
   Pacer – Amps

Others

1. Broken Face
2. Catfish Kate
3. Crackity Jones 
4. Mr. Jeeves.
5. 
   

========================Let's try the blogsphere for more info, ah ha=============

This one https://albumreviews.blog/10-best-pixies-songs/

Allow me to quote: 

The Pixies reunited in 2004, but didn’t record a new album until Deal’s departure from the band in 2013. I’ve omitted the band’s newer material from this list. Re-listening to these songs, it’s noticeable that Deal is involved in most of their best moments. Her bass playing and backing vocals often provide the group’s pop sensibilities, and it doesn’t feel like the Pixies without her as a foil. All the same, Black Francis is a fascinating front-man. His lyrics are often eccentric, about subjects like science fiction and abstract movies, but his impassioned vocals still express inner turmoil.

Now that is interesting. So Deal did not help make a new album when they reunited, ... very interesting. There have been some good songs since Deal, so I can't fully agree here, but certainly they had a TON of good old songs. 

Songs:

• U-Mass, related to the university of Massachusetts, where some of them dropped out. 
• Planet of Sound.
• River Euphrates, OK, not familiar at all. Gonna try it out. 
• And the usuals:
• Debaser
• Monkey gone to heaven
• where is my mind
• gigantic
• bone machine 
• dig for fire
• i bleed

Influences: Yeah I've heard this, the fellow says:

"Cool – thanks for listening! There are a few different elements in there. Black Francis didn’t discover punk until he was in his late teens, and there’s unlikely stuff in there like surf guitar and early CCM [Christian Rock...] musician Larry Norman [he released over 100 albums, what]."

Artist - Noriyoshi Ohrai

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rinuKjbFX1Q&pp=0gcJCRoMAYcqIYzv

Some specifically inspiring great stuff about 75% thru. But it’s all great/excellent.

Peter Cullen voice samples

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=10G_GPIqb88&t=313s

The Crow - Soundtrack info

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OM716yfDtuw&t=331s

Pretty great info. 

• I didn't know the NIN song was a cover of a Joy Division song. 
• Comments say The Cure started doing "Burn" live since 2016ish. 
• Way more tidbits

Dreamscape - 80s flick w Dennis Quaid

 Not bad. Skimming thru beginning. Overall, not a super movie, but it's a fun cult movie to watch for the creepy dream sequences. Even the beginning has the atomic bomb and lady running... was this before the Terminator [2] fence scene or what? 

• Snakeman, great. Oh check it, later in the movie he gets a new face (when the villain uses that form or something). 
• The bad guy is the dude from The Crow movie. He’s a great villain (pict below). David Patrick Kelly
• Some Freddy Krueger vibes here, fingernails into knives. 
• I loved the crooked stairs thing, felt very dreamlike. They had rooms with skewed angles and stuff in the kid's dream, it was good. 
• Has the two super solid older actor guys. The one from Dune 1984 movie, Max Von Sydow. And the guy, Christopher Plummer,  who is always the boss villain in movies. Kate Capshaw the eternal 1980s lady. Dennis Quaid of course. 

This blog has great picts and info: http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-films-of-1984-dreamscape-1984.html

Music - A Flock of Seagulls- Man Made (The Matrix movie style warning)

 Man Made

A Flock of Seagulls

Man made machines make music for the man 
Now machines make music while the man makes plans 
A second generation, a generation lost 
While the man prepares for the holocaust

Man made machines to control the days 
Now machines control while the man obeys 
A second generation, a generation lost 
While machines prepare for the holocaust

Esper pts. out the Black Dragon, Shadowmire

 https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Vcj8xAGP5Rk

• Sounds great. From 4e D&D. Black dragon.
• Witchlight fens is the area. 
• Has fake water lairs in the swamp, even fake treasure . Can make/use illusion copies of self. Some other magic.
• Had a power (before 5e's legendary actions/resists things) that allows an extra action/or cancel a bad thing happening to it once per round. 

B movie - strange invaders (1983)

 strange invaders

I halfway am enjoying it. The first half is an interesting small town study from 1983ish. It’s an homage to 1950s scifi alien b movies.

Main actor guy is always likeable. He was in American Graffiti. And the lady tabloid lady is that ole 1980s incarnation for any movie. She was in a lot back then.  

Early on, main guy was super awkward with his dog. Too strict. Leash too tight. Okd doggie didn’t mind. 

Nearing end. Spoiler, is the daughter half alien or what. 

Guess the music theft

 Scary how these ai songs mostly sound good  . Berka 1337 is the dude  on yt. 

• This is Nickelback and ? Candlebox/Matchbox twenty or something. Then the singer changes at the end to a chick.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KmhSz_T4gUk
• Thais one is a combo of Ramstein and Kmfdm and some v diff simger sometimes, also like that Brit band MESH (similar to  depeche mode) ? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn-dzSA_iRQ
• This one is something I cant put my finger on. Singing is may Elastica or No Doubt(not right but right era): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BOaeVH5i6DE

Next time, inviz stalker or phantom stalker

 Inviz stalker is from Elemental plane of air! 

Or the stalker twins from the dnd cartoon, the phantom stalkers, from plane of fire/ from Fiend Folio: https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/phanstal/

(((the 3.5e or Pathfinder 1e version - https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/phantom-stalker/ )))

Climate/Terrain:	Any
Frequency:	Very Rare
Organization:	Group
Activity Cycle:	Any
Diet:	Fire
Intelligence:	Semi- (2-4)
Treasure:	Nil
Alignment:	Neutral
No. Appearing:	1-2
Armor Class:	3
Movement:	12, Fl 24 (D)
Hit Dice:	6
THAC0:	15
No. of Attacks:	2
Damage/Attack:	1-8/1-8
Special Attacks:	See below
Special Defenses:	Impervious to fire
Magic Resistance:	Nil
Size:	L (7'+)
Morale:	Elite (16)
XP Value:	650

• Phantom stalkers are creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire, and are found on the Prime Material Plane only in the role of servants to high-level mages.
• In its raw elemental form, the phantom stalker appears as a slim pillar of fire with vague outlines of arms, legs, and a head, resembling an emaciated fire elemental. When on the Prime Material Plane, the creature's most common form is that of a muscular, reddish humanoid, 7' or more tall. with fiery eyes. Their faces are elongated versions of a human face, with a pointed chin and high forehead. When angered, they lose their solid form, appearing much as a burning ghost. 
• However, phantom stalkers have the ability to polymorph self, and have been known to appear in various forms. Most of the forms they assume incorporate the colors red, yellow, and orange. Phantom stalkers can fly, and this ability is apparently unimpaired by the shape they assume.

Combat: Phantoms stalkers normally attack with their two sets of sharp claws, each of which can inflict 1-8 hit points of damage. If both sets hit, the stalker has a grip on the target and pulls the unfortunate victim to its fiery body, causing an additional 12 points of fire damage. The phantom stalker is able to cool its body to 70° Fahrenheit, so that it can lift or carry things without incinerating them. The creature has a Strength of 18/50.

Phantom stalkers are invulnerable to all sorts of fire attacks, and magical fire attacks (including fiery breath weapons) in fact heal the phantom stalkers one hit point for each Hit Die of fire attack. However, phantom stalkers save at -2 versus cold attacks, and such attacks add two points of extra damage per attack die.

If a phantom stalker is reduced to 10% or less of its original hit points, it can cast forth its dying life essence into a 6 HD fireball, after which it dematerializes and dies. The explosion is centered on the stalker itself. This is done only as a last resort, and is never done if it will harm the stalker's summoner - unless the summoner is directly and immediately responsible for the phantom stalker's demise. Those who would summon phantom stalkers would be wise not to give them hopelessly suicidal commands.

Habitat/Society: On the Elemental Plane of Fire, phantom stalkers have no true organization. In fact, they are often bullied around by fire elementals, efreet, and salamanders.

When a stalker is summoned by a mage, it is generally grateful for its departure from the Plane of Fire, and wishes to serve the mage loyally. Paradoxically, it is also instinctively resentful about being summoned, a trait common among many denizens of the Elemental Planes.

Phantom stalkers are summoned by a variant of the invisible stalker spell. The spell summoning the phantom stalker requires a piece of coal carved in the shape of a flame; otherwise, the spells are identical. A mage must exercise great caution in giving a phantom stalker instructions, since the stalker will try to pervert those instructions by taking the mage's words literally and following them to the letter. This is a nasty habit that phantom stalkers picked up from efreet. Aside from this little quirk, the summoned creature serves well as a bodyguard.

There is one explicit instruction inherent in their summoning. If the summoner is killed, his/her phantom stalker(s) will vanish into the Ethereal Plane, where it will spend 1-4 hours tracking down the killers. The stalker will unerringly find the killers, unless the latter are continually hidden by spells or other non-detection devices or abilities. Phantom stalkers gain this tracking ability only upon the death of their masters. The ability disappears once the summoner's slayer has been tracked, though it will return one more time if the slayer has escaped, giving the phantom stalker one last chance to find the killer.

After tracking down the summoner's killers, the phantom stalker will reappear on the Prime Material Plane, intent on vengeance.

Ecology: Besides being the whipping boys of the Elemental Plane of Fire, phantom stalkers are prized for the liquid fire that flows through their bodies. If this essence can be captured, it can be used to create Flame Tongue swords.

=====3.5e / PF1e stats below, most:

Phantom StalkerCR 4

XP 1,200
N Medium outsider (elemental, extraplanar, fire, shapechanger)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +12

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 Dex, +5 natural)
hp 45 (6d10+12) (((I would probably give higher HP for 5e, way higher or better AC)))
Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +2
Defensive Abilities flames of healing; Immune fire, elemental traits
Weaknesses vulnerability to cold

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average)
Melee 2 burning claws +10 (1d4+4 plus 1d4 fire and grab)
Special Attacks burn, death throes

STATISTICS

Str 18, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 4, Wis 11, Cha 11
Base Atk +6; CMB +10 (+14 to grapple); CMD 22
Feats Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Fly +11, Perception +12, Survival +9
Languages Common, Ignan
SQ find target, change shape 1/day (polymorph)

Burn (Ex)

Anyone touching (or touched by) (((I might say even ppl attacking with melee))) a phantom stalker must succeed on a DC 15 Reflex save or take an extra 1d6 points of fire damage as clothes ignite or armor becomes searing hot. The damage continues for another 1d4+4 rounds after the phantom stalker’s last successful attack. Phantom stalkers can also ignite flammable materials with a touch. The save DC is Constitution-based.  

Death Throes (Ex)

A phantom stalker reduced to 0 hit points or less expels a fiery blast equivalent to a fireball (caster level 6th) that deals 6d6 points of fire damage (((maybe higher for 5e))) to all creatures within 20 feet. A DC 15 Reflex save reduces the damage by half. The save DC is Constitution-based. ~Avoids hurting it's summoner, unless pissed off.~

Flames of Healing (Ex)

Any magical attack against a phantom stalker that deals fire damage heals 1 point of damage for every 3 points of damage it would otherwise deal. If the amount of healing would cause the phantom stalker to exceed its full normal hit points, it gains any excess as temporary hit points.

Ideas - Dragon Skull by Kobolds, via Pathfinder KM vid game

 

Get sceens of - islands in the sky (1989)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=49Ul4lhLWjQ&t=3098s

 Time 51:30 has awesome plants and mountains. 

More prior to that. 47:30 time  and 44:30  45:00  

46:00 is super good  

And super cool zoomed in frog next to sundews

22:24

All look alien and beautiful. 

Underdark ideas 1e or 2e tsr

 https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ecbATRYWrKY

Lotsa good from Guy Frattallone

Cave-ins. 

Medieval villages had 50 ppl, London had ~10,000

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_KRxu2WhF4

Medieval England  

Most places had 50 ppl in their village. Strangers were probably weird. But there was some culture saying to be nice to visitors on the road... bread and water type stuff, esp. religious centers would provide. 

Towns had like 200 ppl. 

Only the biggest, London in the 1100s, had 10,000ish maybe 20,000. 

Are those Will-O’-Wisps?

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H6kFRvtqDbA&pp=0gcJCRMMAYcqIYzv

The House of Ghosts (1906) // The Haunted House (1907) - a French film says wikiped. 

Time 5:30 or so, fireballs flying around, about 5 inch diameter. Seems like Will-of-the-Wisps to me. Well, wikipedia says something about ball lightning, so maybe it is that. But that's not very ghostly is it? There was a lightning bolt in an earlier scene. 

This blog says the fires are "little ghosties", so yeah, to me that's back to the Will-o'-Wisps. https://monstermoviemusic.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-house-of-ghosts-1906.html

Movie- North by Northwest

 The okd classic. Finally watched. Had no idea other than the plane scene (replicated in X files w a helicopter in the corn field, kinda). 

Impressions: 

• It was Cary Grant, not Jimmy Steward. Whoops! 
• Main character was a jerk by his actions… cutting lines at cabs, lying, chey, but that part was all comedy. He was more just a rapscallion. Scoundrel. And I guess it was that personality that let him fight back against the baddies. 
• Watched the whole thing, it was a solid story. Started slow but something watchable about this old movie. 
• Were some of Mount Rushmore scenes real? The hotel with that view maybe?
• 
  

FA2 Nightmare Keep module… v high level

 https://m.youtube.com/shorts/h7UPSahM7SQ

Levels 18-20

It’s a Forgotten Realm TSR thing. 

Pathfinder kingmaker -2/3 through the game, thoughts. UPDATED

Decent game. Once in a while one of the little written passages is the best part, like those ones I got screenshots of at some point. Buggy as all get out... crashes too often. 

Combat

• The fighting is OK, not great, not as good as the old Pool of Radiance-Ruins of Myth Drannor (and that other game), but it's decent. There is a lot of it IF you turn on the "auto Kingdom mode" which I totally recommend. Otherwise you'll be spending half your time walking / burning time... I do not like burning time/grinding in games, it is dull as fk. So yeah the fighting is I think a little better than Baldur's Gate 3, which was lackluster and got boring b/c not enough fighting by a long shot.
• BTW, Buggy buggy bugs. Crashes a lot. Crashes during a screen change/save a lot. On PS4, you can easily have too many saves, and have to go delete half your saves in the PS4 interface to get disk space back to save again. 
• Finding the right difficulty areas was a hassle at first, a super big hassle, b/c using a thousand potions often never made the difference. If you aren't close to the right level with your party, there is nothing you'll be able to do, generally. 
• Mostly it's rinse and repeat tactics. Get the super high AC fighter out front. Flank to get sneak attacks, but then screw yourself when you realize fireball is going to hit the flakers. 
• Mostly I do turn based, but sometimes if it's easy I just flip on the "zerg swarm attack move" setting. 
• Fighting Defensively on your one super high AC dude.
• Charge to get in a hit on round one is common. 
• AoE is a little disappointing sometimes in the fact that it is too rare to get that perfect "nuke them all" with a big AoE. I mean once in 20 hours you'll get to do it, it's not quite enough. Normally you'll hit 2 or 3 guys at most, b/c the programmers set up the enemies to be super smart about spacing. Maybe if Chain Lightning exists in this game, or something similar, then it'll open up a few super nukes. It's not terrible right now though, just needs more variety. Like now that I have the Dragon Breath spell, and so many energy types to choose from, I want more resist to X and vuln to Y stuff, but all the fire-resistant trolls are gone already. 
• Melee, besides sneak attacks, is fairly boring. There are all these supposed "options" that aren't very useful, like rarely at least. A single attack instead of 2 for the fighter that does extra dmg... in theory that'd be better for the Damage Reduction monsters... but his To-Hit is so bad while fighting defensively, I rarely use it. And if the enemy isn't hard enough to need his AC to be maxed out, then the trouble of clicking the button and/or the DR (damg reduction) just isn't a thing for that particular fight/monster. 
• Magic Blasting - Early on Burning Hands was fun for all the "gotta get close but not die" stuff. Later Fireball is better than the Cones (I got the 60 foot cones even) or Line attacks 98% of the time, which is a disappointment, because I'd rather variety. Maybe I should change my "specialization/aka extra dmg" to the Dragon Breath cones and lines to force me into variety, cuz for now it's on FB and it's super damn good. If I don't try to be interesting and flank, heh. 
• Flanking - actually it's so HARD to control exactly where your guy is moving to, they allow flanking if you are just at a right angle from your friend, not directly behind enemy needed.
• Wolves are flipping annoying and probably the hardest thing in the game, stupidly. They don't go for the high AC fighter, they are super smart and surround and attack mage and priest types. You can never AoE all of them, which would be SO SO FUN to do once in a while, but they never NEVER let you do that without hitting your whole party. They knock you down, and in PF1e when you stand, Attacks of Opportunity. Ouch. Sometimes I am able to run around in circles with the fighter to waste the AoO from the wolves, but when I don't, basically my low HP or low AC guys are dead. 
• Reminds me, I did a custom difficulty to just auto-resurrect my NPC party members b/c it's just too much of a hassle with the crappy pathing and crappy positioning problems with the interface. I would much prefer a hard grid, that'd be tactical and accurate!
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NPCS and STUFF

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• The NPCs they force on you are mostly annoying as hell an not what I'd want in a party. You can spend gobs of gold to get your own mercenary party members... I ended up getting two mercs and so my party is:
• My main, a sorcerer. Horrible ugly portraits to choose from for elves basically, so he looks terrible and goofy. 
• Merc Barbarian dude. Crappy portraits to choose from. B/c I got sick of the barbarian chick yelling in my ear, having a sword the size of a boat, and the fact that it's silly she'd be doing more melee damage than an elder Godzilla. Drop her as soon as you can and pretend you never saw her... but they annoyingly keep showing her story and her sword that is bigger than she is on load screens, grrrr.  Go away lady!
• Cleric-Dwarf NPC they give you. He's fine. Although I get annoyed at some of the forced "making fun of the goth-kid dwarf" dialog they give you. He's more combat and less healing, so I literally have 4 melee folks, 1 priest, and 1 mage. Not what I would think i would need. The dwar-cleric is terrible at healing, his AoE heal will heal the enemy, whereas the priest will not heal the enemy. And the single-target cure xyz wounds is OK, but low healing numbers and there is some crappiness around pathing/visuals where sometimes ANY spell can be accidentally not cast and a turn wasted b/c you though you had the distance correct when targeting. 
• Speaking of crappy pathing/visuals, you can't walk 30 feet and cast a spell reliably. Best to walk 29 feet then cast... I've lost so many spells looking a the green line and 30 number only to be smacked down by the game. 
• Rogue-wizard. 90% rogue chick. She's fine. They give you a half-elf who is double-classed with 2 levels of wizard. I just went pure rogue from then on... I forget I could pay to respect her, so maybe I'll do that and make her all Rogue, but then that'll feel boring, I dunno. She used to be able to Vanish as a spell and it was nice for a one time guaranteed sneak attack, but damn if it randomly stopped being castable, I haven't figured out what went wrong... wearing armor but then I took that off this morning b/c her Bracers are +5 Armor and don't overlap with body armor. 
• BTW, Weird b/c my "perfect" team of 6 characters only has one blaster mage... I should have two. Hmm. 
• Merc Fighter dude. High AC. Stays on "Fighting Defensively". I got rid of the chick in armor high AC tower-shield-fighter and went the same build with a dude. Amazingly I actually got a half-decent portrait, though his expression is that of a worried child... and that's better than 95% of the other portraits you can pick yourself believe it or not. 
• Priest. He's fine, the one they give you. He's a heal heal heal, buff, heal heal heal guy most of the time. Have him carry an everburning torch. 
• The NPCs I keep out of my party:
• Half-orc. I don't do half-orcs and especially not mage half orcs, give me a break. 
• The halfling? gnome (halfling?) chick with the super giant feet. Halfling I think. No thanks. 
• The gnome alchemist bomber dude. Tried him for a sec... his bombs suck,  you HAVE to target an enemy, meaning splash always hits your friendlies. Useless. And he's annoying to listen to, OMG, he has to be the worst personality in the game. Snobby, snooty, snotty, and whiney. Nearly killed him when I met him the first time on the road just due to pure annoyance. 
• Barbarian chick, mentioned how annoying she is, and the stupid giant sword. 
• Armor plate mail chick. No thanks. 
• The black dude ranger. Was gun-shy with worrying it'd be a political message device... b/c  a) the fact that all the melee folks are chicks in the default game and b) the way the last 5 years of video games have been with "the political message", but this guy is totally cool. His dialog was smart and believable, despite him sticking out and being a foreigner... they address it and make it make sense instead of just pretending human races and foreign countries aren't a thing like in the recent games and movies (the year is 2026, but this game was made in like what, 2017 or something). I found that I really liked his beginning dialogue, he sounded smart but used phrases/words that were believable for a foreign person who learned a new language. Very likeable dude, IMO. Well done game maker folks or whoever did his stuff! I heard his wolf-dog is a super tank, but haven't tried him/it out. 
• Forgetting someone or two....
• Loot. 
• Half-way or 2/3 of the way through the game, it's starting to get really repetitive. Everybody in the 6 person party has +2 natural armor amulet, +1 resist cloak or better, +1 saving throw ring or better, etc. Not much variety on wearable items as the game goes on. 
• Found only one boots of elvenkind
• There is a unique helmet from the first miniboss that looks cool, but doesn't do a lot
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• Weapons. Weirdly, I'll get like one upgrade once a week, and then all these weapons that seem like they should be good just get sold b/c they do 2 pts less dmg per attack or whatever. 
• Ranged attacks - seem pretty not great. Maybe if you build a perfect ranger it'd be good. 
• Buggy buggy bugs. 
• Crashes a lot. Crashes during a screen change/save a lot. On PS4, you can easily have too many saves, and have to go delete half your saves in the PS4 interface to get disk space back to save again. Hilarious, I'm rereading that the old Pool of Radiance - Ruins of Myth Drannor crashed too much... sheeeit, it ain't got nothing on this game's constant crashing. 
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Random: 

• Tip vs verdant chambers
•  https://www.gamerguides.com/pathfinder-kingmaker/guide/walkthrough/chapter-2-dire-narlmarches-expedition/a-just-reward
• I have been suspicious of the dryad. Is this a fight? Gotta solo from super far, inconvenient.