With Greater Reincarnation slated to appear in the Store the first weekend of March, I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not I want to take the plunge with my original character.

Post Script Edit: One other thing I should definitely mention is before you Greater Reincarnate, you need to have access to 32 point builds. If you haven’t unlocked the favor already, there is a sale on 32 point builds going on in the Store this week.

With his one level of multiclassing amid his levels of bard, I can’t decide if I should just upgrade him to 32, or scrub out that level of fighter while I’m at it with the Greater +1. There are some considerations before you just let Kruz burn your body to ash to feed to his tree, so to speak.

Going Greater

The main reason to go “Greater” with a reincarnation is upgrading him from the old 28 point character to a 32 point character. Back when I was a player, this is a day I never imagined would actually come! I always had a note of sadness thinking that my poor faithful little bard, the first character I ever made, would always be sub-par compared to those characters that would come after him. Now it’s like a reunion in a way. I’m not sure that I’ll change much about him… except that one level of fighter that still haunts me.

Scrubbing Out Mistakes

Back when the level cap was only 10, I remember being vexed by that level of fighter I took. I would forever always be out of reach of the final level of bardicness. With the Greater +1 I’ll be able to kill two birds with one stone it seems: upgrading to 32 point build, and removing that level of fighter. I need to be careful though, because the level swap provided by the +1 in theory could be used to multiclass another level of my choosing… but my intent would be to convert the level of fighter into just bard to be straight bard. I was tempted to replace it with a level of Sorc, but I think I’ll dabble with that on an alt some time.

Careful Planning

I’m pretty happy with my bard, but in the event I felt like changing some stuff around while I was at it - besides just getting the extra ability points - it’s a good idea to think ahead. I mean effectively this lets me completely and utterly redo him, and without fear of changing something that was handy at mid level, but grew less so at high level. I can completely spec him around my current game play style. I should probably be careful because since there is always new stuff being introduced, something that seemed “useless” to me at this level may come back around and I might regret getting rid of it… but I guess that’s what re-reincarnating is for heh. At least now I won’t feel “stuck” no matter what happens in the future.

There are many great resources for such purposes, but there’s no better resource than your fellow players. Talk to other players who have characters in the style you’re thinking of is an excellent way to find out if that aspect of a character will be something you’ll like. But there’s nothing that says you can’t just experiment and do something because you “feel” like it. Customizing a character can be challenging but also rewarding, so do what works for you! For me, I continue to banter with the other Bards seeing what they like (and dislike) about the way they play theirs vs the choices they made to end up that way. I’m particularly interested in talking with other Bardic friends who plan on reincarnating to hear what they plan on “fixing” (or “changing”) about themselves.

It’s funny, but a long time ago Reincarnation was foretold by an unusual community prophet. Though it’s not 100% the same, I can’t help but think back to this very interestingly worded suggestion. I’m glad to see we now have something that is a shade of this old idea, to not let an old character go to waste! I’m interested in hearing about how you plan on preparing for your greater reincarnations! Leave a comment below or ping me back by writing in your blog and including a link to this post!

I keep hearing a comment that has lead me to believe I am…unusual in the way I play DDO. Too often I hear from my friends, my co-workers, or even just random players I PUG with that they don’t understand how it is I’m never out of plat on my characters. I thought maybe it had something to do with the classes I play, but as I’ve started to expand the variety of what I play I’m noticing that I still have coin to spare. This tells me that something I’m doing is different, so I thought it might be fun to share some of the habits I’m doing that seem to be working well for me. Some of it may seem…odd…but then again I’m never in a position where I can’t afford the things I want when I want them, so how bad can it be?

I tend to do a LOT of the habits described in the Stormreach Economics Guide. If you’ve never checked it out, I highly recommend it (especially if you’re a relatively new player). As I play I find I do a lot of these habits instinctively now, and the only time I slack in doing them is when I’m not in the mood to buy things.

Little Habits That Add Up

These are the most “routine” things I do when I play that are consistent no matter what the class is:

• Breakables
  • Smash every breakable that doesn’t require me to go too far out of my way and loot whatever is in it.
  • If I’m waiting on someone from AFK, I wander a lil further to smash breakables and loot whatever is in it.
  • I have a key bound to target/pick up any objects. Basically it’s configured so I just roll my palm with minimal effort and YOINK…it’s mine.
  • Generally I don’t ninja breakable loot out from under people, but if someone moves on without claiming it… YOINK… mine.
• Collectibles
  • I got one of those huge collectibles bags and I grab every collectible I see that doesn’t require me to wander too far off the beaten path. I just set it to auto-gather and let them accumulate. I’ll deal with them….eventually.
• Chests
  • EVERYTHING is looted until the point I start to get tight on space. Then I switch to only looting things that stack.
  • If I’ve gotta make room, I pick the cheapest thing that doesn’t stack to destroy.
  • The stuff I’m looting has to be worth more than the stuff I already have. I tend to glance at the base value of items (or at least what border they have) before I grab stuff.
  • I always always ALWAYS loot coin found in chests. Doesn’t take up any space so why not.
• Bags
  • I keep one of each type of bag in my inventory to stash things, including gem bags and quivers.
  • I set it to auto gather so I don’t have to think about it, especially since many things that fit in the bags stack.
  • I keep a quiver on my non-range characters. Any arrows I find in the chests and breakables get stashed there to be sold when I remember at some point.
  • Anything that over-flows outside of the bags (like excess arrows, excess gems) is destroyed if I need the space.
• End Rewards
  • Unless it’s an item I really want, I only pick the item from the list that is worth the most money

Maintenance

These are some of the erratic routines I have that throttle up or down based on how much coin I need. For example, if I know I’m going to be in the mood to start looking for weapon upgrades (more on this shortly), I start doing more of these things with more regularity instead of every once in a blue moon.

• I repair as often as I can remember to. The sooner you repair the better when it comes to unbound gear. You don’t just take damage from death in the game. For instance, some spells and traps inflict damage on your gear just by getting hit with them. Hitting certain kinds of monsters can cause more wear than  normal. I just go to a general vendor and look at the repair tab to see if anything needs fixing and fix it then.
• I try to hit up the vendors/brokers once every play session, usually at the beginning of the night to clear up space for more loot (multiple times per play session if I feel inclined).
• I bother to visit the brokers in the Marketplace, House D, and House K. I just go to each one and see if they want anything. The final stop is to the general vendor. If I’m so inclined I will make a trip to Ataraxia’s because the vendors there give good prices. Again, this throttles based on how much money I have. The more money I have the less often I do this because I’m just too lazy to worry about it if I am not short on funds.
• I take the time to crunch dragonshard fragments in the Stone of Change. This is usually if I’m waiting for something/someone and have some down time. I just keep on stacking them until I can’t crunch them any further.
• I only do this if I feel the need, but I bother to turn in collectibles and sell everything the guys hand back. This is an involved process that I don’t do often because sometimes it requires you to take breaks during the turn-ins to sell off the stuff you have. This became particularly true once I started using the bigger sized bags to hold them.

Shopping

So an immediate assumption made is that I have to be getting money by selling my phat lewtz on the auction house. On the contrary, I have the WORST luck with chest pulls. The best items I’ve ever pulled from a chest were a Sirocco and a +1 tome on a stat I didn’t care about at the time. That’s it. OH and I just recently pulled a holy silver weapon that I’m not proficient with. Woo. So I definitely have a “shopping strategy” since any good items I have are a result of buying them from others.

• If I’m looking for weapons I try to browse the current prices to get a sense of what the “average” high/low is. I will only buy something that is low enough to be an anomaly compared to the average I’ve seen. This means I often won’t buy the thing I’m looking for for several days as I get a sense for the prices.
• I will often take the time to check the brokers for items to buy rather than the auction house. The brokers have pretty standard (and predictable) prices. Once in a while, you find something someone sold not knowing any better.
• Of the things I get that are worth any money at all, I undercut, undercut, undercut. Sure I’m not making the zillion howevermany plat it *could* sell for, but I take the quick money I can get now and I’m not having to constantly re-list it. I never cut lower than what a broker will give me for it though, that would be silly.

Situational Savings

Some habits I have to make money are the result of very selective behavior. These are very dependent on the type of character I’m playing.

• I bother putting points in haggle and snagging a nice haggle item on my higher charisma characters.
• I will sometimes buy things with my higher charisma character and pass it through my shared bank to the character it was meant for.
• I use a LOT of Hirelings. I’ve gotten pretty good with them and use them in lue of potions, wands, etc. I find it cheaper (especially on my higher haggle characters) to buy up a buncha contracts and pass them to the chars I need. Pocket healer ftw.
• When I’m using the Hirelings I only use the minimum I need, so as not to waste them. I also run them into the dirt to get every precious minute’s worth out of them. I’m obsessive like that :X

I figure the way I play the game is probably not the same as others…but then again I’m always able to get the things I want when I want them, so in the long run I guess as long as I’m happy that is the most important part. I’d love to hear from others what THEIR favorite tips are for keeping your characters’ coinpurses full! Feel free to comment or you can write about it in your blog and ping me back! To ping all you have to do is include a link in your blog post to this post!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a good community puzzle lately. Eladrin was doing really good, but let’s see how quickly you guys beat this one. This is a number puzzle this time. Let’s see if you can figure out this sequence puzzle: 2 3 2 0 1 0

With a new year upon us, it’s a good time to take some precautions to make sure that your game account is secure! Here are some of the common ways that players end up with compromised accounts, and tips on keeping your account safe!

Recycled Passwords and Usernames

With so many websites and computer-based interactions asking for a password, it’s tempting to use the same one to make it easier to remember and keep track of. This is a major way that accounts get compromised! If you’re a player who has a habit of this, I urge you to at least change your password to something unique for each thing you care about that has a login (like DDO)! Very often users will recycle their password or login at things like:

• Fansites
• Social networks
• Browser-based games
• *ahem* Adult memberships

On the surface these places are fun and seem legit. Member interactions can be happening like clock work, everyone’s having fun, no signs of anything “bad” going on. Behind the scenes though, the user name and passwords are harvested from registrations by the site creators, and then one of two things happen.

1. They may sell the list to unscrupulous parties/organizations
2. They may do the unscrupulous activities themselves.

What happens in either case is the list of harvested usernames and passwords is tried against bank logins, game logins, network logins, and pretty much anything that could be noteworthy that calls for a username/password. They do this in the hope that of that collection of names they gathered to their site, some of them are people who use the same login and password for OTHER things in their life - important things! They use the list over and over hoping for a “nibble” on something - whether it’s a bank acocunt they can plunder, an email they can take over, or a video game account they can abuse. So don’t let yourself be one the “some people” who recycle usernames/passwords and end up with a compromised game account (or worse)!

Does this mean you shouldn’t participate in fansites or social networks? Does it mean every fansite or social network is secretly someone out to cheat you? Of course not! But what it does mean is it’s best to be safe than sorry and use a unique username and password when you register for something just so there’s no question. It may be a pain to keep track of all of it, but it’s more secure and you never have to fear the friendly neighborhood fansite again!

The One You Know

Sometimes a user will see a charge on their credit card for something they don’t recognize. With all the hubbub about identiy theft, people are always quick to assume that it is a hacker from the depths of the blackmarket who bustificated their computer security. More often than not… it’s someone you know. It’s difficult to believe that Grandpa George, Sister Suzie, Daughter Debbie, Roommate Robert, Neighbor Ned, Husband Henry, or Girlfriend Gina could EVER be the culprit. After all, friends and relatives love you and would never “steal” from you, right?

The trouble is often the people you love/hang out with don’t see it as “stealing” either. They often treat it as “borrowing with intent to repay”. In the case of people who live with you, they may feel your account or personal information is “part of the house domain” and that they aren’t doing anything wrong by using it even though it’s yours. This leaves you holding the short end of the stick when you suddenly see charges that you didn’t want or items on your character turn up missing.

If you see unexpected activity on your account (missing items, characters appearing/disappearing, Turbine Points going missing, website activity you don’t remember posting) or bank records (extra charges, double charges, payments for things you didn’t authorize), it’s always a good idea to inquire with the people you know first. They’re likely to confess to the “borrowing” and the two of you can work towards repayment.

Here are some ways to reduce temptation by your friends and relatives so you never have to have those kinds of discussions:

• Keep credit cards and secure information in safe places. (This includes that purse you always toss on the kitchen counter after school, or the wallet you set on the end table after work!). Leaving things laying around means it’s easier access for them to “borrow”.
• Don’t share your usernames or passwords with others, even temporarily! We’ve all been tempted to show our friend something and let them use our account because it’s “just this once”. Don’t do it! You might think they won’t remember, but they can and will.
• Change your password often! It never hurts to do this even if you’ve been diligent.
• Don’t leave bills or other important paperwork laying out in plain sight, even in your home!
• Make important calls that involve passwords in private - don’t just say your password out loud where prying ears can overhear you.
• Don’t leave passwords and login information written down (especially around your computer)! This is very tempting because it can be tricky to keep track of all that information. Unfortunately you might remind someone other than yourself of how to access your important stuff!
• Be sure to explore unusual activity sooner rather than later - it’s easier to catch and correct if you do so while it’s happening, and not after it has caused a major problem or cost you dearly!

It doesn’t mean that your friends and relatives are bad people! Often times they just think that you’ll “understand” that they didn’t mean anything malicious by it, or they think it “doesn’t make a difference” because you’re in the same household, and so forth. Whether it’s spending too much money or selling an item of yours that you didn’t want to sell, the unwanted activity can cause you undo stress. Try to be careful with your personal information to avoid having to confront a loved one about unwanted account activity.

Naughty Things

I may love all my players, but I’m not going to pretend that they’re all angels and never do anything naughty,  download things they should not, or go places that they know better than to go to. Unfortunately it happens…and what ALSO happens is people end up with compromised accounts as a result.

After all, the place hosting that torrent of cheaty stuff, pirated software, illegal pr0n, or copyright-breaking multimedia has nothing to lose by stealing your account from you (I mean really, they’re already breaking the law to begin with in many cases). Where are you going to turn? “Hi, I was downloading some illegal stuff and it had a bunch of malware and keyloggers in it…” of course you’re not going to admit to that typically. They know that too, and will prey on you as a result.

• Never download things from places you don’t trust or open executible files that seem suspicious.
• Don’t buy gold, use powerleveling services, or download game hacks.
• Avoid going to websites that deal in the seedy underbelly of the internet conducting illegal activities.
• ESPECIALLY avoid going to those places on computers that contain important stuff like personal information!!
• Ultimately, just try to avoid the whole mess altogether by not going to naughty places to begin with. That’s the safest way.

I hope everyone has a safe and secure year, and after you’re done reading this, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD!!11!1! It never hurts to do so!

With the advent of character copy for the preview server (and some downtime that’s even MORE likely to have people playing on Lamannia waiting for the worlds to come back up), I’ve been getting more questions from users who are curious about what the “purpose” of the preview servers are. Questions like:

• What’s the difference between Mournlands and Lamannia?
• What are we supposed to “do” on Lamannia?
• What do the devs do with Lamannia?

Rather than bore you with the technical stuff (mostly), I thought it might be easier to understand the preview servers by looking at the journey of when game content is first created to the point when it is put on the live servers… but told in a lovely allegorical story that uses high tech animating tools like… a white board and some dry erase markers!! Presenting…

The Journey of Content

Staring: A cartoon drawing of a gold fish

Stage 1: The Fish Bowl (i.e. developer environment)

When a developer first creates content, it lives on their desks inside their personal work computer. Think of it as putting a fish inside a small fish bowl in your home. The ultimate goal is to get the fish (the game content) into the ocean (the live servers).

But you can’t just flop the fish directly into the ocean, that might kill it, or break the ocean ecosystem and stuff! You  never know how that fish is going to react to things around it. So you start with the fish in the fishbowl. The same is true for game content. You start with the basic concept and you work your way gradually towards live release so that you don’t unintentionally break something in a huge way that you couldn’t forsee in the fishbowl. Initially only the people at “home” (the other devs) can see the fish. They watch it, monitor its behavior, and do a few things to generally test how it works in that small and very controlled space.

When the devs feel that the fish isn’t going belly-up in the fish bowl, and they’re feeling good about how the fish works with its surroundings (getting rid of obvious bugs that manifested internally, seems to be doing what it’s supposed to at face value, etc) it’s time to move it to a bigger space in front of some player eyes to see their basic reactions. This is like moving the fish from the fish bowl in your home into an aquarium in your home. It’s still in your home so the outside world can’t see it, but the aquarium is a bigger space for the fish where more can go wrong. That aquarium is the Mournlands.

Stage 2: The home aquarium (Mournlands)

Sticking with our analogy still…

If you compare a fish bowl to a home aquarium, things get more complicated. You have to pay more attention to the chemistry of the water, there’s more equipment to maintain, it takes up more room, etc. How the fish acted in the fish bowl may be VERY different to how it behaves in a bigger more complex space. This is true for game content. (In case you can’t tell from my awesome and life-like depiction, that’s Couatl on the left and 404Error on the right.)

Even with the best planning and game design experience, how something worked for a dev on their machine and in front of their co-workers is not the same as how it acts when seen by players. Players see the world through different eyes, react to things uniquely, and don’t have preconceived notions about how something is supposed to behave the way a staff member does. It’s a good first step towards getting to the ocean… but it’s still not the ocean. The other thing is… it’s not public either. It’s more like inviting people to your house to come check out your cool aquarium… and no one sees it except the people you allow to see it.

In the aquarium phase, we observe the fish behavior and make sure it’s still not going belly up and still acting the way we would expect a fish to behave (measuring initial player reactions, sometimes catching more large-scale design issues and bugs, making quality of life improvements when possible etc).

Once we’ve determined that the fish is still alive and kicking and it didn’t destroy the fish tank it was in… it’s time to migrate it to something a little closer to the ocean, but that still isn’t the ocean just in case… the public preview server Lamannia.

Stage 3: Seaworld (aka Lamannia)

There’s other equipment and technical stuff that happens when “moving the fish” from one place to the next… but I’m not going to get into all the plastic bags and nets and stuff that the QA, Network Operations, and other teams wrangle to get the fish out of the home aquarium and into the big-time tank. Once it happens though, this is the first time that the fish (the game content) is really in a space that replicates closer to what the ocean (the general public on live servers) will be like.

It’s not 100% comparable to the ocean - again these are gradual steps. After all, your city aquarium doesn’t have a “tide” to worry about usually…there’s not a pirate whaling organization to worry about… or an oil tanker to crash and spew sludge everywhere… but there are some large scale concerns in the city aquarium compared to the small home aquarium. The same is true for Lamannia.

It’s the first time that the public gets to see the content in a more unbridled way. During this point, the icthyologists (people like myself, Tarrant, 404error, MadFloyd, etc) keep an eye on how the fish is behaving in a place that better resembles what life will be like out in the sea. It’s the last chance to see if anything is going to cause the fish to go belly up. At last, it’s time to turn the fish loose into the sea… the live servers.

Stage 4 and beyond: The Ocean (the live servers)

The content is finally put out for general public consumption. It starts in the harbor with the VIPs before going out to sea with the free players.

Now this isn’t to say that during this journey there still can’t be a problem with the fish when it finally hits the ocean. In fact, there are a lot of fish to watch, and at any point in the process, it could be that the one fish with some ick on it made it through and died in the sea. But many fish are rehabilitated in this process (many before they even get out of the fish bowl), and the fish that are having issues in the sea are caught and we make sushi out of them or something… okay sorry I was writing this around lunch time so had food on my mind.

Another interesting phenominon about private and public preview servers is sometimes you can catch a problem that is a bad problem… but not in time for the fix to go into the release. This isn’t the best way to explain it but: sometimes if you find a problem half-way through the fish’s journey to the sea… and the solution is to replace the water… you can’t just drain the aquarium, the fish will die! You have to figure out what the problem with the old water was; get the new water ready; if it needs sa lot of water, where it’s coming from; figure out how you’re going to get the old water out; where you’re going to put the fish in the meantime; etc. Sometimes you have to let the fish go to sea because the water problem is too big to tackle in a timely manner, but the fish will survive in the meantime, so you just have to let the fish swim around in the sea while you’re getting better water ready for it for next time (i.e. a patch, hotfix, etc).

The grand goal of Lamannia is not for players to be QA testers… it is for baby steps towards release so that we can try to catch problems before they blow up everyone’s characters on live. Sometimes catching problems is a bug report. Other times it’s qualitative feedback a user provides on the forums. And sometimes… it’s us noticing differences in the way the content behaved when there was only a smaller pool of people interacting with it vs the broader public audience. I hope my silly fish tales and crude drawings have helped to paint a better picture of the journey of content from dev desk to your desk at home.

And now for something completely different…

So Tarrant was helping me get shots of the white board images, and we started with him trying to add a decorative diving man to the fish bowl. This turned into a series of outtake images as he kept getting bigger and bigger. I’m not quite sure what the morale of Tarrant’s drawing is, other than I’ve decided the last image is “RELEASE THE KRAKEN!”

Just wanted to offer apologies to anyone who’s tried to PM me recently. The old PM box is asploding more than usual, on top of much work for Update 3! All of today I’ve spent prepping for…prepping f… excuse me…

*ACHOONewfreemidandhighlevelquestsreincarnationclassswappingOOO* *sniffle* Sorry about that. When you work on the release notes and preview stuff for too long the particles sometimes get in your nose and cause you to sneeze. I’m hoping to get caught up on my PMs after Lamannia is up tomorrow, so if you’re far down in my queue sorry about that!

Tee hee hee!!! I can’t stand it when I find out something nice ahead of time! It’s why Mr. Tolero and I always end up exchanging gifts well before the actual occassion for which they were purchased. Today is such a day…

I have decided that this year is the Year of the Llama (Tiger, schmiger)

First there is the release noting…

Then there is the preview threading…

Last comes the “and here’s how you use it” ..ing…

But last last comes something nice for the Llama server that I’ve been itching for - I’m in the process of writing the final details on character copy! I had mentioned it a little on the forums a bit ago. I’ll have more info for Thursday on how it works and what it entails and all that jazz, but the general take-away is: it’s new stuff for Llama for the new year! Granted it is in beta stages at this point and I expect some funky behavior, but it’s definately a step in the right direction. Bah, back to Llama prep I go, more info will be coming on how it works and what you’ll be previewing and all that. Happy New Year!

You’re trying to take advantage of the 20% XP boost, but you’ve got a holiday party that you need to make food for. How can you get the food done while still leveling your character? Here are a couple of my favorite entertaining recipes that can be made while gaming. I make these because they are tasty and people think you spent a lot of time/effort, but in reality you had it going on in the background while you were doing that Shroud run. I’m always looking for more to add to my collection, so if you have any recipes you use for a similar purpose, post in your my.ddo blog and include a link to this post so I can read all about it!

RATING KEY:

• Zerg Scale: How quick it is to make. The higher the rating, the quicker you’ll be done with it!
• No Babysitting Scale: How much you have to keep an eye on it. The higher the rating, the easier it is to cook this dish WHILE you play or do other things.
• Good Haggle Scale: How cheap it is to buy at the store. The higher the rating, the better the savings!
• Successful Fort Save Scale: How healthy it is to eat. The higher the rating, the better it is for you. This is based on the recipe I present, but there are many ways to cut corners to make the recipe healther if it scores low (or things you can do to make it less healthy if it scores high). When I make healthy stuff, I try to cater to it tasting good. If it’s healthy but tastes like cardboard, what’s the point?
• Fire Resistance Needed: On a scale of water to shavarath lava, how hot the dish is. The higher it rates, the more fire resistance you’re going to need to eat it!
• Computer Dining: How easy is it to eat this dish in front of the computer while you’re trying to play DDO? Higher the rating, the easier it is!

Easy: AFK Cheeseball

Zerg Scale:

No Babysitting Scale:

Good Haggle Scale:

Successful Fort Save Scale:

Fire Resistance Needed:

Computer Dining:

This one is fast and easy, and as long as you can use a knife and fork, you can get it done with one AFK break. All of the ingredients can be purchased during your regular grocery run and kept in the fridge until you need to whip the dish together. Finished dish will keep in the fridge for many days too.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• Some kind of bowl to mix things in (mixing bowl recommended but a large cereal bowl will work too)
• Chef’s knife (or some other veggie-bane knife)
• Fork
• 1 block of 1/3rd less fat cream cheese*
• 5 or 6 slices of dried beef**
• 2 stalks of green onions
• Clear plastic wrap
• Some kind of plate to put it on (a saucer can actually be just fine, but a bigger plate looks prettier)
• Crackers of some kind (the round kind) but basically anything you want to serve the cheeseball with

NOTES:
* If you use full fat cream cheese, decreases the fort score. If you use fat-free cream cheese the flavor will be the same but the texture will be wrong and it won’t make a nice cheeseball shape. Will work as a spread though. Use a block of the cream cheese - getting it out of those little round containers w/ lids can be a pain.
** You may have a hard time finding this at the store if you’ve never used it before. Typically it’s in the same section as tuna, spam, and vienna sausages. The most common brand is Hormel. You can try substituting with thinly sliced pepperoni style meats but it will change the flavor.

Walk-through:

Clean your green onion by taking one of the outer leaves and peel it off over the root (and be sure to remove that nasty little translucent slimy skin too).  Chop off the little roots but try to retain a lot of the white. Cut about 1/3rd off the green end of the onion just to remove any wilted parts. Rinse the onion and then chop it into little pieces (I usually just slice across rapidly to produce tiny little chive rings). Dump this mix of green/white chive rings into your mixing bowl. Next take the slices of beef and dice it finely. Dump that into the mixing bowl. Give the meat and onion a quick toss with the fork to help separate any that may be sticking together too much (the beef is usually the worst culprit for this). Dump the whole block of cream cheese in the bowl. Now at this point you can either return to your keyboard with your bowl full of stuff and play a little more while you work, or just finish things up before you get back to playing. In either case…

Use the fork to mash all of the ingredients together until well combined. Then scrape it out of the bowl into a tall mound in the center of your intended serving dish. Set the bowl/fork aside (you don’t need them any more) and lay a sheet of clear plastic wrap gently over top of the mound leaving the edges loose. The sheet of plastic wrap should be big enough that you could wrap it around/beneath the serving plate. Using your hands, begin to press down on the mound of cheese mixture with the plastic wrap and begin shaping it into a ball by pressing with your hands. Gradually the plastic wrap should cling all around it and help you to shape it into a nice ball shape. I find it easiest to work from the top down to the sides of it. Once you’re happy with the shape, continue to press the plastic wrap to get most of the air out and press down around the base of the cheeseball to help seal it in. Whatever plastic wrap is left press flat against the plate and any that hangs over the edge of the plate should just be tucked beneath it. Tada! You can now toss the cheeseball and serving dish into the fridge for a while until it’s ready to be served. The plastic wrap will keep it fresh and in proper shape. Technically you can serve it right away, but I find it’s best after it has gotten a chance to chill for another hour or two to let the flavors meld. Serve it on whatever crackers you like - those little round ritz style crackers work just fine but I’m sure things like wheat thins or triskets etc are also pretty good with it. If you want a larger cheeseball, just double all the ingredients and use a bigger plate. It makes a great appetizer for parties, and keeps for several days. I know I’ll be making some for new years eve. But I’m also not going to let my appetizer prep get in the way of my leveling!

Easy: BRB Chili

Zerg Scale:

No Babysitting Scale:

Good Haggle Scale:

Successful Fort Save Scale:

Fire Resistance Needed:

Computer Dining:

The thing I love the most about this dish is it is hearty enough to serve as a dinner, but comes mostly in cans so it’s very little preparation involved. Since it’s cooked in a slow cooker, again very little babysitting. The meat tends to be the most variable factor in it. If you want a really really high zerg score for this dish, use a baked chicken breast. Otherwise, use ground meats of your choice. We’ll discuss this more in the Meats paragraph. You can also control the fire resist very effectively, but I’ll talk about that in the Fire Tips paragraph…

Ingredients & Equipment:

• Slow cooker (doesn’t have to be huge but can’t be one of those TINY ones, stuff won’t fit otherwise)
• 2 lbs meat of choice (see the Meats paragraph)
• 1 small to medium red onion (optional). Skip this ingredient to increase zerg scale.
• 1 jar of your favorite salsa of desired hotness
• 1 can of beef broth (or 1 can of desired beer). If using a bouillon cube, crush the cube and combine with 12 oz water
• 2 cans of chili beans in sauce
• 2 tablespoons of chili powder
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin seed
• 1 can of favorite refried beans (fat free works great no taste/texture difference either)
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• Garnish Options:
  • Diced white onion
  • Sliced Jalapenos
  • Shredded white or yellow cheese
  • Tortilla chips
  • Sour cream <- my personal favorite

Walk-through:

Cook whatever meat you’re using (we’ll talk more about this in the Meats paragraph) and cut it into whatever shape you’re using (shredded, cubed, whatever, depends on the meat). If it’s ground just drain it off and use. Dice the red onion and either cook with the meat or just dump the diced onion into the slow cooker. Skip diced onion all together if you would like to zerg it. Dump your meat into the slow clooker. Dump all other ingredients except the lime juice into the slow cooker with the meat (basically you’ll be doing a lot of jar opening at this point). Give it a good stir. If it’s too thick for your taste, just add some water until you reach desired consistency. Set the slow cooker to cook on low for 6 hours, or for more immediate use set to high for 3 hours. Prior to serving, dump in the lime juice. Serve with any combination of the optional garnishes listed.

Meats

This is one area that can really change three things: the flavor, the fort save, and the zerg factor. I’ve tried the dish with many kinds of meats and it all tastes great of course, but some are easier than others, and some are healthier than others.

• For better zerging and better health:
  • 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts - season the chicken breast with salt and pepper and any other desired spices and toss in the oven for like 45 minutes. The nice thing about chicken breast is you can even use it frozen. Just set it in a baking dish and set an oven timer. It gives you enough time to get a quest run or two done before you need to pull it out and check on it. When you check it, cut into it and make sure the juices are clear and it’s not too pink inside. After that, either cube the meat or use two forks and rake at it until you create a mound of shredded chicken meat.
• A little less zerg but better health:
  • 2 lbs of ground turkey meat- brown the meat with salt, pepper, and the diced onion to help flavor it. Drain and away you go!
• Less zerg and less health, but richer flavor:
  • 2 lbs of lean ground beef - brown the meat with salt, pepper, and diced onion to help flavor it. Drain and you’re done!
• Less zerg and way less health, but strong flavor and extra kick:
  • 1 lb ground beef with 1 lb spicey pork sausage - brown both meats together with salt, pepper, and diced onion to help flavor. Drain and you’re done!

These days I’m so used to cooking the meats that I multi task it while I play. I dump everything except the meat into the slow cooker and the meat is the last thing I add. Generally you can just turn the meat a few times and keep working it with the spatula between short quests. If you have a forgiving party, just tell them you need a bio break or just tell them you’re checking on dinner, it’s pretty fast/easy to fuss with the meat.

Fire Tips

The fire resistance rating is another thing that can be really variable. Here are some tips for increasing/decreasing the fire damage of this dish:

• For more fire damage, try any of these:
  • Cook the meat with red pepper flakes.
  • Use 1 lb of spicey ground pork
  • Use “medium” or even “hot” salsa
  • Add some sliced jalapenos to the cooking process (seeds and all!)
  • If the cans of chili beans come in “spicy” get those instead of standard chili beans
  • Use shredded pepperjack cheese instead of other types of cheese for garnish
  • Add a dash of your favorite hot sauce to your bowl or to the chili batch itself
• For protection from fire in this dish, try any of these:
  • Add sour cream to your bowl. This is my favorite method to balance out heat.
  • Add shredded cheese to your bowl (can be done in addition to sour cream)
  • Add crumbled tortilla chips to your bowl
  • Use mild salsa
  • Use mild chili beans

And for something different/random, this is something that Mr. Tolero is fond of but that is totally alien to me: take a slice of bread, spread peanut butter on it, and use it to dip in the chili. Try this at your own risk, he loves it but I’m not sold on it.

Of course, there’s always the ultimate quick-dish to give you more gaming time - going to the deli and grabbing one of those pre-made shrimp or cheese platters. I can’t say that I’ve never resorted to this >> They don’t need to know that you made it while you were gaming, it just needs to taste good!

Happy Festivult and Happy New Year!

I hope all players are having a great holiday season! Here’s some holiday antics from around the office!

Best Gifts EVAR!

We had our secret santa exchange, and I received an awesome gift from Marketroid. Last year Patience did well by getting me the D&D book with Vin Diesel. This year Marketroid continues the tradition…  I give you: Tablekiller!

The bane of dining room tables

This thing is awesome. It’s a solid metal dice! I gave it a test roll (which is the loudest most violent thing ever, hence its name) and it rolled a 20! I shall now use it during times of great need at the game table. That and I figure every gaming table needs one of those big d20s where you threaten fellow players that you’ll chuck it at them if they start derailing the game session with ruleslawyering arguments heh. Did any of you get really great geeky gifts this holiday? I’d love to hear about it! Post a reply or ping me back by including a link to this post in your own My.DDO post!

Multi-cultural fun

The nice thing about having lots of diverse co-workers is being exposed to a lot of fun cultural differences! Everything from Christmas to Winter Solstice is being celebrated around the office! So in case it wasn’t obvious from his forum avatar, Tarrant celebrates Hanukkah. We took a trip to the store and the topic of christmas tree lights came up, because apparently the Tarrant household was setting up an xmas tree… whereat I had to help him pick out “appropriate lights” because it wasn’t something he ever had to fuss with himself. It’s funny how you can take for granted the little things like that. How do you celebrate throughout the winter? Do you get to play DDO during your time-off or is it all family visits? (This year mine will be a lot of gaming, as my family is out of town and we’re not going back home this year).

The Great Game Tree

We always set up a tree in the marketing/community team part of the office. This year the tree was rocking! Complete with plush Festivult cookies from Jaggie, asheron’s call cut-outs, jeweled bells, and other fun ornaments. Clover handmade many of them, and there’s even a Broccoli on the tree chilling by a green ornament. Of course a lot of people do a double take when they see what we used for our tree topper…

Wait a second... that's no angel!!

Festivult Fun

I’ve been collecting Festivult coins like crazy, and gathering EVERYTHING! I tend to be one of those Festivult hoarders who sucks up inventory tabs with coal and cakes. I’ve now completed my collection for this year (was having a tough time getting a Succubus cookie initially!) so my work is more or less complete. I have some items on my character that have been sitting in my bank space since the very first Festivult haha. So far my two favorite places to snag coins have been Irestone and Kobold’s New Ringleader. I’ve never managed to get one of those “super rare” prizes from the Jester on any of my characters in 4 Festivults - wow, has it really been 4 Festivults!? - but I did get to witness one person getting a good pull from the Jester. Never seen someone so happy, running through all the chats screaming in all caps about their pull and offering to show it in the trade window to any doubters hehehe. It was awesome. I have been hearing rumors though that there is a player who has collected several thousand Festivult cookies this year!

The Twelve Tweets of Festivult is also still going on! If you’ve missed out so far, there are still more chances to win until January 1st! And don’t forget to stop back by the Festivult_Jester’s page on the last day for one more chance to win!

Well it’s time for me to finish up some last minute gift shopping. Mr. Tolero and I were impatient and opened our gifts early, but I have one more trick up my sleeves. So until next time, Happy Festivult everyone!

We wanted to make sure the bonus XP covered all of Friday, so the bonus XP is on RIGHT NOW! Enjoy!