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I'm going to try something different. Just going to make week long threads, rather than trying to put everything in one, to minimize having to scroll all the way down to the bottom to see my latest post.

Hi, everyone. Joe Schmoe here. And I've managed to take this game up again after not being able to for years (account issues). I first started this game back in the mid-2000s somewhere, and played for about 6 years, but got burnt out and went to play World of Warcraft (I think).

But fast forwarding to today, I'm a Twitch streamer who streams this game, and I'll be posting stream re-caps/blog posts on here. But I think it would be important to let you all know what kind of streamer I am/what to expect:

• I usually play vinyl records when I stream, as in-game music/sound effects gets repetitious after a while, and having never grown up listening to vinyl - I grew up listening to cassettes - I figured "Why not?". And my tastes run the gamut, from folk music and jazz, to rock and metal, and some avant-garde/experimental as well, so one should keep an open mind. I've played some real doozies.

• I eat/drink when streaming. Apparently it's a streamer taboo, but my lifestyle requires it. I do a sorta-kinda Warrior's Diet (one big meal per day, rather than several smaller ones), especially on my nights off when I fast, as it's more effective when there's fewer interruptions. And I stream every day, even on work nights, so I don't have time to set aside for just eating. I basically have to kill 2 birds with one stone.

• I also play Melvor (aka Runescape) Idle at the same time as well. In fact, this game is what got me back into OSRS! One of my Twitch regulars, named

white_wimmin

, suggested I try this game. And the rest is history. So if I'm talking about say, woodcutting, when I'm actually not woodcutting, that's why.

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. Hope to be here a long time. Take care, and feel free to drop by.

25-May-2020 05:20:04 - Last edited on 30-May-2020 07:58:54 by J0e Schm0e

Sunday, 5/24/2020

This one is a 2-poster (gotta love that 2k character limit )



Definitely fasting today. Ate a lot of junk food. My job decided to give us a bunch of free candy, one of which was my favorite kind: Reese's peanut butter cups! I had also made the mistake of buying some mini-cinnamon rolls as well, another delicacy of mine, unaware that they were going to be doing this. Whoops!

And today's session ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/630903805 ) I created a new hardcore ironman character, as apparently the Grand Exchange is no longer what it's cracked up to be, specifically the fact that you can buy/sell at any price now, and not just 5% above or below the fair market value like it used to be back in the day. Leads to price gouging and huge undercuts, like I constantly had to deal with in Final Fantasy XIV. So, not much point continuing much further with that guy....

25-May-2020 05:22:06 - Last edited on 25-May-2020 05:40:49 by J0e Schm0e

So, to start with, I did the Sheep Shearer & Cook's Assistant quests. After those, I started shrimp/anchovy fishing, eventually getting my fishing level to 20 so I can start fishing trout/salmon, and then cooking all my stuff to get cooking 26. So, I'm good to go on that front.

But as I have no access to The Grand Exchange now, and vendors pay you less for an item the more you sell them, I began pickpocketing Man, and eventually farmers, to get the money I need to buy an iron and steel scimitar and a steel pickaxe (as well as getting level 17 thieving). Eventually I'll need armor though, so more thieving is on the way.

After that, I became

Joe Schmoe, Slaughterer of Chickens

, killing chickens until I got my melee abilities to level 5. Then I went and killed some cows for a while, but eventually I got shell shocked from streaming almost 7 hours, a rarity for me (I'm usually on for about 2-3) and ended up bailing.

And here's what my stats now look like:



And as for the vinyl records I spun this session they were:

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
The Ventures - Golden Greats
Rush - A Farewell to Kings
Tom Lehrer - An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer

And after I played those, I fired up a Joe Rogan podcast (w/ famous farmer Joel Salatin), as I was planning on playing a long time, and didn't want to go through my whole record collection in one day.

Okay. Calling it a night. Thanks you for your time, guys. And you all have a great night/day.

25-May-2020 05:25:23

26-May-2020 05:34:07

Post 2 of 2



But it seems, at least for a while, thieving will be my MO, pickpocketing all the money I need, then going to various places/Aubrey's Rune Shop/Lowe's Archery, to buy all the weapons & armor/runes/bows & arrows I need. Seems easier using one skill to feed 3 (melee, ranged, and magic) than using 3+ different skills to supply 3 different ones; I don't have to be in 3+ different places at once. Remember, I'm an ironman. Can't just hop on over to The Grand Exchange for all my one-stop shopping needs. 100% DIY with this guy!

And the end result of all my hard work:



Okay. Here's the vinyl LPs I played this evening:

The Beatles - The White Album
Devo - Shout
Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Frankie Yankovic & His Yanks - Polka Time!
Rickie Lee Jones - Self-Titled Debut

And after these, I pretty much just played random stuff from YouTube. Bluegrass, vaporwave, and some Super Nintendo music as well.

And aaaaaalrighty. That'll do 'er. Thanks one and all for tuning in. And see you all on the flip side.

26-May-2020 05:37:47 - Last edited on 26-May-2020 06:46:36 by J0e Schm0e

Tuesday, 5/26/2020

Broke my fast about 12 hours in. My stomach was in a knot, and was kinda feeling it in my lower chest as well. Not sure that's supposed to happen. Not to mention the sliced turkey and pulled chicken I bought just a few days ago is starting to smell bad, so I figured I better get them eaten. I don't like to waste food.



So, did my Tuesday stream today ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/632781429 ). And no sooner than I said in yesterday's blog post that pickpocketing is "feeding" my runes/arrows/equipment that I decided to not rely on thieving this session. Instead, doing the Rune Mysteries quest and working on actually making my ammo/equipment, only making just enough money to buy feathers and eventually an addy pickaxe. But the big overall goal seems to be now making 1k steel arrows, 1k each of mind runes and fire runes (Fire Strike), and steel armor. So I really have my work cut out for me lol.

And when my work week starts up it'll be back to 2-3 hour sessions, so it's all good.


And the end result of all my hard work:



Alrighty, the vinyls (you know the drill ):

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
The Dubliners - Seven Drunken Nights
Devo - Oh No, It's Devo!
Queen - Flash Gordon Soundtrack
Heart - Little Queen

And like usual, I broke off from playing records and played some YouTube stuff:

SNES beat-em-up playlist.
SNES shoot-em-up playlist
Yatabe Track Day (Jazz/fusion mix)

Okey dokey, that'll be it for today. Thanks everyone for reading/watching. Have yourselves a good night.

27-May-2020 04:33:04

Wednesday, 5/27/2020

Ate like a caterpillar this morning, trying to get rid of the food I'm no longer buying, rather than throwing it away. I ended up gaining 2 pounds (147 again, forgot to mention yesterday that I weighed 145), surprisingly my gut is still at 33". Strange (muscle gain maybe?).

Played Pinball this morning ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/633249475 ). Didn't do too bad, got close to beating a couple high scores even. Definitely a keeper session.



Today's session ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/633762204 ), it was lots of mining and smithing, finally getting 900 iron ore. So after that I started smithing lots of bronze arrowheads (180 bars worth). Iron bars were next. I didn't get them all this go-round due to lack of time, so I'll have to get the rest tomorrow. Let's hope it's enough to get my smithing to 30, ha ha ha.

And my stats at session's end:



And here's the records I played today:

Grofe - Grand Canyon Suite
Motorhead - Overkill
Frank Zappa - Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
Ted Nugent - Self-Titled Solo Debut
George Benson - Breezin'

Okay, time to start getting ready for work. Much obliged for the visits, and have a good night, everyone.

28-May-2020 01:15:26

LiLWiZBiGiCE said :
I wish you luck as you work through the game as a HCIM! Be cautious & calculated & I'm sure you'll keep that HC status!

Thanks, Wiz. It's definitely a struggle, but worth it.

28-May-2020 14:06:28

Thursday, 5/28/2020

Aaaaand the session for today ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/634725504 ): Finished up on mining 900 iron ore, then went to make iron bars, expecting to not have enough to break level 30 at the rate it was going, bad RNG and all. But instead,.....



I actually had a 280 bar surplus! That helped a lot. Eventually it got my smithing level to 33 (I think), meaning that I "only" need to make ~200 steel bars in order to reach 35, and be able to make steel arrowheads. I also made a set of iron gear as a backup, just in case.

Then I went to start mining coal. Holy shit what a difficulty jump. I figured coal would only be a liitle bit more difficult to mine than iron. Nope! And a rune pickaxe costs 32k. I probably could've just pickpocketed all that money, and bought all the gear and ammo I needed. But then again a lot of quests that I have to do have stat requirements, so I may just as well train them up. It's like something I read on the TV Tropes website:

"Final Fantasy games give you a choice: you can either spend forty hours playing underwater foosball or watching chocobos screw or whatnot, which eventually gives you your ultimate weapon so that you can defeat the final boss pretty handily. Or, you can spend those forty hours actually fighting the final boss. It's up to you. You want a quick game, go play pinball."
— Lore Sjöberg, The Book of Ratings

And at the end of it all I'm now at:



The 33rpm records I played this session were:

Roky Erickson - Gremlins Have Pictures
The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Lou Reed - Rock n' Roll Animal
The Clash - Self-Titled Debut
Johnny Cash - The Sound of Johnny Cash
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

Alrighty, gotta get ready for work now. Thanks for reading/watching, everyone. And have a good night/day.

29-May-2020 01:15:01