So after deciding I wasn't gong to do Nano this year, I am now doing Nano.

I only discovered this yesterday, so I have absolutely no plans or notes, or hell, even a clue what I'm doing with my novel. Should be, ah, interesting. 2,019 words so far, with a planned 2k for today.

Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is surprisingly good, so far, though it looks like its going to have the usual bland hero (Is this a staple of YA or something? Every YA book I've read with a child/ teenage protagonist has been entirely unremarkable.)  Still , some lovely ideas and worldbuilding so far (I particularly like the Lady on Grey)

Started playing this on Halloween. There is a staggering amount of content in here, most of it top quality (Tiberius69's entry was a particular delight. ChaosWielder's was really quite disturbing. ActorOfVeil's bothered the fuck out of me). Though there are a few weak entries, I'm not sure what the point of Stinkeen's is. But on the whole, well worth playing, and reinstalling NWN2 for, even for just a few hours.

Adam Miller's entry was, as per usual for Miller, all style and no substance, and more than a little pointless. but I must confess I have quite a strong dislike of Miller's work, mainly due to the fact the females in his mods are always bisexual, but the guys? Are always straight. This bothers me on two levels 1) the reduction of female/female relationships to male titillation and 2) The complete absence of homosexual men (probably because as we all know, they're icky, right?) In the readme for the first Dark Waters mod, I remember him saying there was no m/m undertones in the sidetrip to the showers because "It's a family-friendly mod". That pisses me off on so many levels.

Anyway, back to Nano!

Are two words which accurately and concisely describe NWN2. Of course my computer could do with a new graphics card and me deleting some stuff, but really, NWN2 isn't really pretty or smooth enough to justify either the high specs or the bloody ridiculous 16 GB of space it takes up. Playing the wonderful Dark Avenger Series  is almost impossible, especially chapter 2 with its more crowded areas. Though I'm determined to complete it, as currently it has no equal in terms of roleplaying, story, NPC interaction and development (7 companions so far, 1 more to come, with a working influence and roster system) and general awesome. Despite the cheesy name it is very well written. Of course both Howls in the Dark and Harp & Chrysanthemum  also focus on story and character development, but are a little too linear and not quite up to Dark Avenger's high standard. Asphyxia looks very promising as well.

Promisingly, Storm of Zehir looks like it will have companion interaction and development. Though not to the same extent as MotB. Still, I'm more optimistic now than I was. Also, I am impressed by the fact that Obsidian responds to its fan base and answers direct questions with a direct answer. Unlike Bioware of course.

Finally, I've been going through The Whisper Queen's Daughter, and while it has viewpoint issues, an abrupt change of tone, a rushed ending and some flat dialog, I am quite happy with it, I like most of the description, I think that my characterisation is better than I'd thought (especially Primrose and Lilith. Alex needs work, and Justin's rather dull), and I like a lot of the imagery I use.

Summer Shorts Progress Report

Title: The Whisper Queen's Daughter
Words Today: 1,037
Words Total: 4,307
Summer Shorts Total: 4307/ 5000

Favourite Sentence: "A golden amber glow swaying in the growing darkness. They had lost the moon in the marsh."

I'm pleased at how well this is going. The plot's a little contrived, the viewpoint and the characterisation need work, and the style has to be kept in check or it becomes purple, plus I'm not sure shortening Alexander's name works. But still ,for a first draft, I'm quite happy with it.

In other news, Storm of Zehir is looking a bit less exciting.
Mainly this quote:
"In Storm of Zehir, we intend to take interaction to a new level. One way we are doing that is reducing the amount of lengthy un-interactive scenes and adding maximum reactivity to conversations. Cohorts help us to achieve this goal. Though they lack complex conversations of their own, and none of them will be love interests, they offer special responses in conversations that the player can choose, or not. The end result is that cohorts always give you more choices rather than sometimes “hijacking” and taking away choices. Because my meager explanation may not be clear enough, here is a specific example of this"

I'm not quite so interested now. I hope Obsidian prove my fears wrong and I'm misreading this. I really hope we're not going to see Dungeon Siege-esque  pack mules for companions.