I was recently contacted by João Santos, supreme overlord of the Mass Effect D20 project & forums. He asked that I give his project a broadcast boost, so here it is. For those unfamiliar with the term, the D20 system is the open source core rules for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, so the MEd20 system builds off an established rules system and conventions and is broadly compatible with a wide number of third party expansions.
Having read the beta document, all 260 pages of it, the design team and forum playtesters have been very thorough and quite clearly have a great love of the universe. Additionally João tells me that they have a professional designer doing an improved layout on the document for future release. So if you're either an RPG or Mass Effect fan (or both!) head on over to the Mass Effect D20 forums and have a look!
So I finally finished Kaidan and decided how to do the bases for my minis. Every character will have a logo / icon on their base relating to that character.
So Kaidan get the Paragon icon, being the voice of reason and goodness - for instance if you shoot him on the presidium his reasoning for not moving is that he couldn't let you at someone who couldn't defend themselves. Pretty paragon IMO.
Shepard gets the N7 logo, or part thereof. I've also jazzed Shep's armour up a little, making it more game-accurate in colour scheme with some lighter grey parts and the N7 on the collar. I also repainted her gun to closer match the Mattock's colour scheme.
Better view of the bases.
The plan for the others are:
Ash - Alliance Navy logo
Garrus - Citadel icon
Tali - logo derived from the shape of the Quarian ships
Liara - data streams as befits the Shadow Broker
Miranda - Cerberus logo
Jacob - somehow making fun of the Priiiize
Kasumi - something relating to money
Javik - he has no need for such primitive identification. To use symbols in the Empire was punishable by death. He should throw his base out the airlock (Renegade icon).
Still got to figure something out for the Normandy:
So the Extended Cut of ME3 finally came out the other week, and I have played it through a couple of times now. Personally, I enjoyed it very much and thought the team did a great job (though it is the job they should have done in the first place...). It adressed the biggest issues (for me at least) with the ending - namely lack of closure both with your crew and lack of information about what you achieved.
"Hey, Vega?"
"What's up, Kaidan?"
"You know our guns?"
"Yeah?"
"We probably shouldn't have left them all on the truck, should we?"
It's by no means perfect - many people unhappy with the catalyst are annoyed it's still there, though the dialogue is significantly expanded with it, and a fourth 'refuse' option is added. I also like that if you take your LI along for the final charge you get a final goodbye:
It's a little unclear but the choices are: "I'll always love you" or "You'll only slow me down".
Oh, Shep, you so bipolar.
The final existing cutscenes are expanded, explainging Joker and the Normandy's 'running away', as well as how people got back on the ship. The voice acting is as great as always, and never feels 'tacked on' -
the final narrations are spot on, though I thought EDI's was a big
overdone on the isn't this all amazing and wonderful front. Hackett's
speach was a truely great one.
Taking different squadies gets you different dialogues. Liara's is rather heartbreaking...
But while his lines are delivered perfectly, the animations lose some of the effect for Vega:
Ah well, still all good. On a more relavent note I did some painting of my ME minis - but it was actually to do some work on Shep than finishing anything new, then I got really sick, so whoops there. Should get to do some this week though.
And I'm sure this will come as a complete surprise to you all, but I made a Mass Effect vid - this time with Nightwish:
Vega will be a Janissary or ORC troop, not decided yet.
Zaeed I think will go with a Asawira or Janissary.
Traynor I'm leaning towards Ghulam Infantry.
Kelly I'm undecided as yet, but the Proxies from the Posthuman set look very workable.
Anderson could be the Highlander SAS.
Thane is giving me trouble - there are suitable minis in design but not in pose.
Mordin... yeah, I got nothing.
