Wow.  This last weekend just flew by.

I spent most of my weekend playing Skyrim.

I’m playing with the same stealthy archer build that I’ve enjoyed so much in Morrowind, and Oblivion.  Light armor, lots of archery, lots of sneaking.  I’m not doing a whole lot of actual thieving this time around though – not picking any pockets, not stealing anything.  For now, I’m going the heroic route…  But I might very well turn to a life of thievery (or worse!) if I can find the Skyrim equivalent of the Thieve’s Guild or Dark Brotherhood.

I’ve mostly been hanging out around the Whiterun area…  Haven’t really traveled too far abroad.  I’ve been doing an assortment of quests for folks in the area.  Joined the Companions.  Killed a couple dragons.  Bought a house there in Whiterun and fixed it up.

I’ve killed about a half-dozen dragons, and discovered at least that many words of power, but I’ve only unlocked two shouts.  The one that throws people back, and the dash one.  I assume that I need to advance the main storyline further before I’ll be allowed to unlock the rest of them.

I just made my way to Solitude for the first time…  Walked in on an execution.  Nasty as that business was, the city itself is very pretty.  Kind of makes me wonder if maybe I bought a house in the wrong place.  Maybe I can buy a second house there in Solitude.

I’m slowly making my peace with the UI.

One of my big complaints is that essential information is broken into two distinct sections.  If I hit TAB, I get this four-way menu where I can look at my magic, items, map, or skills.  If I hit ESC, I get a different section where I can look at my quests, check my statistics, and change game settings.  It just doesn’t make much sense to have quests broken out into a second area with your game options like that.  And it keeps confusing me.  I’ll hit ESC when I should’ve hit TAB…  Or TAB instead of ESC…

But now that I’m making a habit of hitting the shortcuts for specifically what I want (‘J’ for the quest journal, for example) it is much easier to navigate.  I’m still not a big fan of how they’ve over-simplified things…  And I’m hoping that someone will roll out a nice UI mod like folks did for Oblivion…  But I’m finding my way around easier.

On Sunday, I had D&D again.  It’s been a few weeks since I last played, and I’ve missed out on at least two sessions.  So I really had no idea what was going on.

Somewhere along the line, we went from level 1 to level 14, so my character was horribly unprepared for the game.  Had to quickly level him up.  We quickly figured out the basic stats, and then the GM started throwing magic equipment at him.  All sorts of +3 gear, a Girdle of Giant Strength, a Cloak of Protection…  All of which is very nice, but it made me a bit apprehensive of what was to come.

With good reason.

Before too long we were fighting a couple dozen human fighters, accompanied by a giant or two, and all led by some magic-users.  It was one hell of a fight.

Then there was some intrigue…  We were sent to recover a stolen statue, but when we got back to town we discovered that our employer had been murdered, and guards were looking for that statue.  Had to do a little snooping around to discover who the killer was, and who was behind him.  Then we started some rumors around town, which turned out to be far more accurate than we’d thought.

And then, before we knew it, it was time to wrap the game up and head for home.  Six hours went by in a flash.

And then the weekend was over, and I was heading back in to work.

Purchased a new Drake, to replace the one I lost last week.  Been doing some more ratting.  It isn’t an amazing source of income…  But it is steady and reliable.  Barring the costs of replacing that Drake, I’m making more money than I’m spending – which is good.

I haven’t really participated in any PvP yet, aside from getting my Drake blown up.  I don’t have the skills to fit either a Hurricane or a Maelstrom in the approved way…  And I can’t really afford to be paying for lost ships if they aren’t fit right.  So I’ve just been ratting and training.

City of Heroes has gone free-to-play.  I downloaded the client and logged in briefly.  I used to really enjoy that game…  But I really don’t have any clue how it works anymore, or what changes have been made.  And I’ve got plenty of other things to keep me busy.  So I don’t know how much time I’ll wind up spending on it.

Terri’s computer is unhappy.  It’s been crashing and giving her blue-screens lately.  I’ve currently got some scans running on it…  We’ll see what they turn up.

I’ve got D&D later today.  Continuing the campaign from our last session, which was months ago.  I’m honestly not quite sure where we left off…

I know I’ll enjoy myself once I get there, but with the stresses of work lately I’m really not feeling very social.  I’ve got a very strong inclination to stay home instead.

Dungeons and Dragons today.  Playing my new dwarven fighter character.

I don’t typically play tanks in D&D – I prefer characters with more diverse skillsets, and more subtlety and intrigue.  Bards and rogues and things like that.  But everybody else was playing mages and rogues, and we needed a tank.

I’m a little nervous because I’m not that familiar with AD&D 2nd Edition mechanics anymore.  Not that it really matters…  Nobody is going to criticize me for rolling the wrong dice or anything like that…  But it’s going to make the whole game slower because I’m not going to know what I’m doing.

Still, it will be nice to get together with the guys and bash some monsters for a bit.