BackFire

A bit late, but here's Saturday afternoon's arc reviews.

Saturday's bunch was a fun run. We rolled dice to see who picked the mission and the winner was supposed to pick an arc from one of the MA Superteam members to play as a holiday gift.

Apparently, I missed the memo on this and thought it was just "pick an arc from your fav list," so when I won the first roll everyone was a bit confused as to who Geveo was >.<

Luckily, Teh Freakshow Artz Klub by @Geveo Arc ID: 25622 was a quick 2 mission arc and was filled with enough action and humor that all was forgiven. (there's a reason it's on my fav list)

If you like fighting Freakshow, have an appreciation of art, a hatred of critics, and a thirst for smart humor, give this one a whirl.

***** 5 Stars and a haiku.

With my little snafu out of the way, WN won the next roll and loaded up:
Fear And Loathing On Striga by @FredrikSvanberg Arc ID: 350522

I'd never played one of Fred's arcs before but, I know he's a pretty tough critic, so I was excited to see what he created. What I found was a fun, adventurous arc filled with fine details, smart, villainous acts, and well-thought out tie-ins to existing canon.

It's very apparent that Fred did his research before writing this arc as there's details I (in my 5+ years of play) didn't even realize were canon before playing it! It was also refreshing to do SMART villainous deeds. Instead of killing an enemy, you defeat him and force him to do your bidding. Oh, it feels good to be a villain when the story is written well!

If you've ever run the Hess Task Force and had lingering questions such as "Why is the volcano still there?" play this arc and expand the experience.

***** 5 Stars and a Giant Mech Man

I don't remember who won the final roll, but they chose to gift Police Woman with:
Papers and Paychecks by @PW Arc ID: 298290

Don't let the unassuming arc title fool ya, this is a fun romp, filled with CoH easter eggs, corporate humor, and an ultimate ethical dilema (that showed most of us don't have much in the way of ethics!)

The premise, alone, was bursting with potential: you've decided to hang up your former heroic or villainous life and get a real job...with Crey Industries! PW doesn't waste 1 drop of that potential as you quickly climb up the corporate ladder by hook or by crook.

Along the way, you are treated to a fun tie-in to the Manticore Task Force, a potential office romance, and a whole lot of very witty humor. So much that I'm sure I'd find more and a second and third run through!

***** 5 Stars and a Red Swingline Stapler

All-in-all a fun time spent with good friends. You can't ask for much more on the holidays

Love the in-jokes and what a great find in that song! You've outdone yourself again DR!

Forget the Hollows, come to Kings Row. We have raptor packs

JFA 2010 and Justice Badges are the main 2.

JFA 2010 more for TFs, socializing, and random teaming, Justice Badges for (duh) the badges.

Gah! It suddenly turned all MySpace up in here.

Awww bummer, I loved the title for "Generic Plot..." thinking it was satire. Hopefully the author got some good ideas for a repub.

I'll have to load up Zombie Christmas on a solo night, that sounds fun!

*anxiously awaits a review of "Stop the Generic Plot.."*

Sounds like a fun mish! Sorry, I was Xmas badging on a diff alt and missed it
And Santa looks great!

Great work, LOVE the Sister Flame! Very cool holiday gifts!

Happy Science-Mas!!

Holmium,Holmium,Holmium!

/em Victory

*ninja flips to the podium and kisses the presenter*

*holds award in awe as he approaches the mic*

Oh wow...this is so unexpected! I was sure Captain Australia had this in the bag...I just, wow.

Whew. Uh...I guess I should start by thanking my sponsor: Crey Industries. Aside from all they do at making all our lives more "super" they've made my dream of being a hero come true and I'll forever be grateful for that!

I gotta thank my, uh, super group...the Friends of Old Kings Row. They may not be the biggest or the most glamorous bunch out there, but they fight the good fight every day and remind us all there's a lot to discover outside the Hollows. Wincott...you got nothin' on Blue Steel!!

And lastly my agent, Vinnie who let me ditch a delivery mission to Azuria so I could attend this competition. Vin, you always got my back...let's take this all the way!

Again, thank you all so much. I'm humbled and honored to represent Justice. And hope I can bring the sense of fun and creativity that Justice server is famous for to this competition.

*holds award high*

Look out other servers, Justice is coming for you and we're bringing our "Crey"-Game!

*exits stage with agent*

Really..."Crey"-Game? That's the best the writers could come up with? C'mon Vin, you're gonna have to give me better material for the finals. And they better not use "Crey"-mazing or In-"Crey"-dible, again I swear, my mother could write better dialogue...

Grats, Minimalist. I'll have to que this one up this weekend!

I used both methods. 1 for my 50 that stayed on my main server and one for a mid 30s alt moving to a new home.

And yes: profit!

Free server transfers were the bestest gift ever! I was able to transfer some unused alts to free up space on my home server AND did some creative transfers to rename an old 50!

Whomever came up with this idea needs a gift basket ASAP!!

Thank you LJ! So much win

* Snipers, Circle of Thorns rituals, and unruly Clockwork on rooftops.

* Overstock of children's toys since there's only 2 kids in the whole city.

* Having to set up guard around Azuria's gift to keep it from being stolen before she wakes up X-Mas morning

* Competition from Crey Santa

* Heroes constantly trying to raid him for his Candy Canes

Who is Kid Scorpion and why is Manticore investigating his origin?

Is he Manticore's secret love child? Or maybe a plant by Proteus to get Manti's guard down?

Either way, all trails lead to Kings Row and the biggest decision YOU have to make as a hero...

"Scorpion's Tale!"...coming soon to a- awww, who am I kidding? I don't have time to write this. I got my own arcs to get done!

Good luck, kid!

Thanks Ice, there were some great costumes on show and you guys ran a smooth ship! Can't wait for the results.

Today's run was a fun time. We all brought our own list of favorite arcs and high roller got to choose.

First lucky roller was me! I chose an old arc that I hadn't played since AE first went live:
Sky Bandits: Heist of the Golden Man by @Outpost Arc ID: 38098

I was curious how this arc would hold up after time and how challenging it would be with a full team. It's a very simple 2 mission arc and all I could remember was that is had a neat custom enemy group.

Sure enough, the customs still hold up as a good looking group...but, sadly, they lack bios. The story was a lot simpler than I remembered, but it was still a fun romp and the perfect team warm-up since it's quick! If you're just looking for a solid, quick, action arc with decent dialogue, good-looking baddies and not too much thinking, this is your number!
**** 4 Stars

Next up, Wrong_Number won the roll and loaded up:
The History of Statesman by @jjac Arc ID: 219484

I was very skeptical of this arc at first since the contact was Nemesis and his name was spelled with l33t-speak. Then the groups inside the mission were roman soldiers dressed like God of War from the console game and they spoke with Japanese references...?!? Huh?

Thing is, once the first clue dropped everything started falling in place and I soon realized this was one of the best written humor arcs ever!

Everything that was out of place was out of place for a reason and it all becomes a laughing good time with many jokes so intelligently written that you don't even realize they're there. We're talking layers of jokes and hidden meanings. I think it took someone 3 mission to finally get the "What Waita" joke that was introduced in the first mission text!

Warning, there are missions that have little to no XP in them, but you are able to quickly run thru and grab objectives to complete if you wish. This is an arc for readers, not powerlevelling.

They say there's a fine line between genius and madness...I put this one squarely in genius' corner!
***** 5 Stars!

I think Ex won the roll (sorry, I don't know Ex's forum handle >.<) and threw out:
Hearts on Fire by @Chyron HR Arc ID: 1472

About half the team was already familiar with the arc, but it was new to me. The arc is a nice lowbie-friendly story involving Hellions, Skulls and girlfriends. There's some good humor and dialogue in the first couple missions and then it suddenly takes a serious turn...a really dark and grim "serious" turn.

At first many of us thought this was going to turn into a funny "Lesbian Hellion" arc, but we couldn't have been more mistaken. It wound up more on the "wife in the fridge" side. And for that I had to mark it down.

If you're going to make a serious arc, make it serious. The humor wasn't a dark humor so it just didn't compliment the story and there was no good segue between the 2 plot directions. Still, it was a solid arc, mechanically sound, and enjoyable for a couple missions.

**** 3.5 Stars rounded up to 4!

Finally, Fredrik got high roll and took us on a villainous journey care of:
Hopeless by @TalenLee Arc ID: 29262

For anyone out there wondering how to avoid the dreaded "errand boy" pitfall of mission writing, load up this arc and simply read mission 1's intro dialogue. From the very get-go the story is set up around the player and made to feel that their actions have meaning.

The factions, dialogue, maps, and bios all have been weaved together to tell a truly villainous tale that fits within existing canon. And we suspect (not sure, since we didn't play it twice to find out) that the player actions truly do change the outcome of the arc if they choose to let the final mission fail.

For a truly villainous experience and to play an arc where YOU feel like the center of the story, I can't recommend it enough!
***** 5 Stars!