WRUP: A relatively quiet weekend awaits Team Blizzard Watch — in between D&D sessions, of course

Whether your week went by slowly or quickly, one thing is true: The weekend is here. And that’s cause for celebration in my books. How you celebrate is up to you, but I hope that no matter what you choose, you have a good, enjoyable weekend.

Speaking of weekends, it’s about time for Team Blizzard Watch to share our weekend plans! It’s relatively quiet, but that isn’t stopping a lot of us from getting wrapped up in some Dungeons and Dragons. Of course, there’s more to this weekend than just D&D — keep reading to see all the fun stuff we’re getting up to this weekend. Yours truly starts us off.

Mitch “Mitch” Mitchell: I’m not sure about everyone else, but I continue to be salty over the time change and a sun that disappears several hours before I’ve even wrapped work. But in terms of fun stuff, I have some cool D&D plans this weekend and I’ll (still) be playing through Horizon Zero Dawn. Who knows — I may be at the DLC by the time this post goes out! (Friday Mitch Note: I am, indeed, ready for the DLC now.)

I know it’s not saying anything new, but this game is fantastic, through and through. Aloy continues to surprise me with just how perfect a protagonist she is. Not perfect in the flawless sense, but perfect in the sense that her dialogue is always quicker than I expect and there’s just so much to the character. And the worldbuilding is so, so good. I can’t get enough of this game, and I’m even happier now knowing that I’m playing it only a few months away from Forbidden West.

Matthew Rossi: Same games as last week — Wrath of the Righteous, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Most of the time is mostly just being tired.

Andrew Powers: Animal Crossing, with its recent updates and DLC, continues to be my favorite video game right now. SWTOR when I have time to commit to it, and Hearthstone’s Mercenaries when I have some time to kill and my son is on the Switch.

This weekend is a D&D weekend, with Thursday and Friday night games, then Saturday is the Wild Beyond the Witchlight Blizzard Watch session. On the TV front, I’ve finally started watching Evil, season 2. That is an excellent show, probably the best show CBS has ever made.

Phil Xavier: Shin Megami Tensei V. Pokémon with demons, in a post-apocalyptic world. Negotiate with them, bribe them, fuse them together — maybe even team up with them to destroy the world if that’s how you roll! Or save the world; that works too, I guess.

This game was announced in 2017, when the Nintendo Switch was being revealed, and it’s only coming out now! It looks like the wait was worth it, though, since it’s been getting stellar reviews from nearly every media outlet that got a chance to try it so far. I’m very excited.

Deb Montague: Thanks to our friends at Wowhead for pointing out the change to King’s Rest; my Tuesday mount run did both mythic King’s Rest and Freehold. No mounts. I am leveling an alt around Draenor and remembering how there were parts of that expansion I enjoyed. I think an initial garrison with a flight point ought to be available for people who skip Draenor, but then need to go back for tmog or something. I see garrison hearthstones are still broken. I disconnect every time I try to use mine. “Well, you need to go through Stormshield.” Then destroy the stone in my bag.

While we’re on the subject of hearthstones, can we have a rotating one? It would be similar to mage portals, where a pop-up comes and you can choose where you want to go. As a dwarf, I’ve longed for a separate hearthstone to Ironforge. Not all of us see Stormwind as the Alliance capital.

Anyway, in other news, I have the next week off and the car goes to the shop so I’m going to dig into games friends have recommended, books, and working on the next script. Can I train a gaggle to be attack geese? Asking for a writer friend. I think Mr. Burns would have been more sinister if he’d said, “Release the geese” rather than “Release the hounds.”

Joe Perez: More Guardians of the Galaxy! I am really enjoying the game, more than I expected. It’s a nice mix of movies and comics, and it just feels very good story wise. It’s not without its bugs, but it’s pretty dang fun and funny. I will be playing the the Innistrad: Crimson Vow pre-release event this weekend and getting to see some friends for some much needed face time. We have a D&D game coming up and I’m hopping excited to get back into it. I love me some D&D.

Christian Thoma: It’s looking like this weekend will be the last great fall weekend in my area so I plan on taking full advantage of it by driving around and look at the pretty leaves; as a result I don’t expect much time for games — especially if 9.2 is on the PTR for exploration.

Plus, well, have you seen all the TV happening this weekend? Second part of Arcane! Red Notice! Olaf Presents! Shang-Chi! Taylor Swift made a short movie too! [link:] (plus her version of Red is coming out so I’ll be listening to that while driving around)

Liz Patt: I think this weekend I’ll have D&D (Friday night’s Candlekeep game), with a side of D&D (Saturday’s Witchlight game), with some WoW alt leveling on top. Oh, and of course, checking out more of the Animal Crossing patch and DLC… I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface!

Ted Atchley: It is looking like a quieter weekend for a change. I’m hoping to get some serious novel writing/editing/researching time in. And there’s still sportsball. My team is struggling, but they are still MY team, and I’ll be cheering them on win (unlikely) or lose (more likely).

On the gaming front, we’ve got a Candelkeep D&D game this Friday. It’s such a fun game. I’ve been digging into my Warforged character’s motivations as he struggles to redefine what his life will be now that he’s no longer just a programmed killing machine. In addition, my SWTOR buddy and I are going to tackle the Secrets of the Enclave Flashpoint (dungeon). We had a blast running Spirit of Vengeance, and I’m looking forward to this one. I’ve respeced my Jedi Guardian back to full Defense (basically their Protection tree). I’m not ready to tank for other players yet (besides my very forgiving friend), but it’s nice to be back in my favorite role.

That wraps us on yet another edition of WRUP – What aRe yoU Playing? I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and get lots of gaming in. And also that the weather is nice to you. I’m already tired of the cold, myself.