Damn I'm feeling you. I'm in the fall process (solidly down 15kg/33lb, approaching 20kg/44lb) with about 10-15kg to go. When my belly stops flapping I'm good I think. But I fear the rebound... Currently lots of my evening snacking have disappeared because of evening gym classes, so late home and even later dinner. So I don't have time anymore to get snacky. Or if I do it's almost bedtime anyway so I'll just go to bed instead.
But once I've hit my goal and don't need to hit gym that hard anymore... That frightens me. A little bit at least. Made some good connections there and got a routine going so i can probably keep it up.
I had gotten it into myself that boars make use of burrows. But I may be very, very wrong.
I hope so. Other option would be fox. Boar I don't think, too small. And I really don't want it to have been a boar burrow as it wouldn't then been unlikely with piglets in it. With ANGRY mamma nearby...
While out foraging I found a patch of big nice chantarelles, we have a good year for them btw. Then I noticed something strange, a hole into the mound. It wasn't there last year I know yhat for sure.
Well... Looks like I pilfered someone's nicely cultivated mushrooms. Sorry.
Hitting the gym
What do you mean capitalism WAS a misstake? Did I miss a memo?
Another Himedere checking in. I love setting up situations where the players and/or the characters squirm in anguish about what to do.
My favorite so far was an estranged princess living as a man and hostel owner. He had turned his back on the throne and wanted little to do with it. As a bonus he was the only child of the king's only remaining child. Fast forward a bit and he needed a (legal) favor from the king. Went to court and met with his grandfather. The king would do it, no strings attached if a) he returned to court and resumed his duties as prince and b) sired an heir.
There were a good thirty minutes of the players anguishing if he should accept while going deep into character motivations and the setting. During that game I don't think I did as much concrete worldbuildning as during those thirty minutes. I loved it, the players loved it. Great time.
The more abstract the map is the more of a support for TotM it becomes. I selfom do a map, rather a flowchart. Quicker, easier and knocks out the last desire to measure things.
This brings us back to zones, a good middle ground. Draw rough map, or great map, and on it mark intresting combat zones. Some are separated with emptiness, others by obstacles.
For example a tavern brawl. Zones could be the Bar, Kitchen, Common Room, Balconies, Private Rooms, Out Front and Out Back.
Fighting on the Balconies could be tight, only one in width and with the risk of being thrown off it into the Commonroom. In the Kitchen there would be fire hazards, improvized weapons, knifes and the Stew. Not to forget other ways to spice things up in there. Around the Bar there would be some cover fighting someone on the other side, bottles to be broken and combatants to glide alond the bar for maximum mental damage.
And so on. Make each zone memorable and with special features. Did I mention drawing it out really helps?
BBC article giving more information https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67920532
TL:DR "Taiwanese voters have chosen William Lai as their president in a historic election, cementing a path that is increasingly divergent from China."
SPELREGLER: Drakar och Demoner (Fria Ligan 2023)
TEKNIK: Discord för samtal och FoundryVTT som spelbord
TID: Fredagar kl 19.00
START: Fredagen den 26e Januari, möjlighet att dra igång en vecka tidigare om gruppen är samlad
LÄNGD: Ca 15-20 speltillfällen
ANMÄLAN: Skicka mig ett meddelande så tar vi det därifrån
SÄKERHETSVERKTYG: Lines and Veils, X-card
FRÅGOR: Har du dem ställ dem.
OM SPELET: Sparkstartade Drakar och Demoner för att det hade varit skoj att ha något på svenska i bokhyllan. Och att det hade varit trevligt att spela något på svenska med svenskt material. Att inte behöva översätta allt. Så här är vi nu, julen är ute och det är dags att dra igång.
Spelet kommer att utgå från grundlådan och äventyren kring samhället Utkante. Iallafall ibörjan till dess att jag lärt mig hur DåD vill spelas. Därefter ser vi vart det tar oss. Utkante ligger i Dimmornas Dal, en region en gång i tiden centrum för ett symboliskt rike mellan människor och drakar. Ett rike känt som Drakriket och berättelser om det är kända vitt och brett. Riket föll och orker tog över dalen. Iallafall fram till ca tio år sedan då de mystiskt drog sig tillbaka. Detta öppnade dörren för en återbefolkning av dalen och ambitösa personer hade snart grundat Utkante.
If the DM asks you you really want to do something look at their expression and do it anyway.
If you want to do something really stupid, crazy or narrativly disruptive look towards your fellow players to get their consent. Then do it.
The time to argue technicalities is outside of sessions to not waste precious gametime. Do it during sessions only if you are into that weird shit.
The best way to get to use new character options is through DM bribes. In this case a sourcebook is recommended.
If you help clean up afterwards you may get inspiration.
Considering it's the norm when you aren't doing something genre typical to take two ir more genres and just smoish the names together. This way you get things like blackened death metal (black plus death) or epic gothic power metal (take a guess). Now smoosh those teo examples together and you get something like blackened gothic melodic death metal. See that there, now we get into the transformative properties of metal subgenres. Death metal with a bit more melody and structure, which power metal has in spades, becomes melodic death metal.
Fun isn't it? Also I may have bullshitted together half of the above. But it is a real thing
Let me begin by making it clear this is not my invention, I encountered the method in City of Mist but I doubt it debuted there. But it is a nifty method.
The problem I encounter from time to time is that my players don't latch onto my descriptions of the scene, not using things in it to grant themselves advantages (bonuses, extra effect etc). Am I perfect? No. Could I do better? Yes.
Or I can take my fuzzy descriptions and make them mechanical by introducing them as Scene Tags. Market square during market day would get Crowded-Market-1 and during a festival Packed-Festival-Market-2 indicating that there is a lot of people there and also how much advantage one would get by incorporating it into ones action. Or disadvantage depending. Trying to pickpocket someone? Take a bonus. Following someone? They easily get lost in the crowd - penalty.
How dark is the night? Moonlight-Night-1 or Moon-Behind-Heavy-Clouds-2?
Traveling through a mountain pass and how deep is the snow? Ankle-Deep-1 or Up-To-The-Dwarf's-Beard-2? What about that Foul-Voice-In-The-Wind-4?
I play pretty much only online so tossing an index card onto the table with the Scene Tag on it is kinda tricky. Instead, depending on how much effort I've put into the VTT, I either write it in big bold letters on the scene image/map. Or I put down a virtual index card, essentially a small graphical element to bring attention to it (see post image).
One more thing, how much is a Tag-1 compared to a Tag-2 worth? This all depends on your system. City of Mist gives +1 for a Tag-1, +2 for Tag-2 etc. So for pretty much any other PbtA/2d6 systems the same works. For D&D (and other d20 systems) a scheme of +2, Advantage, Advantage and +2. I've lost much of my familiarity with d20 systems due not having ran something recently. So someone (everyone?) else probably have better ideas. In dicepool systems an extra dice for each tag level is appropriate.
That is the basics of it. But what if the players want to create a Panic!-At-The-Market-3? I'll write about that some other time.
PS. Still recruiting for my small sortie into Swords of the Serpentine, Fridays at 19CEST.
Filled
~~Serpentine swords are curved. Curved!~~
~~SYSTEM: Swords of the Serpentine
PLATFORM: Foundry VTT (if I manage to hack it, if not some other solution) and Discord for voice
TIME: Fridays at 19:00 CET (1PM EST, 10AM PST), and for about 3½-4 hours
CAMPAIGN START: September 1st
APPLICATIONS: Let me know if you are interested and we'll take it from there
SAFETY TOOLS: Lines and Veils, X-card and others if desired
DESCRIPTION: Swords of the Serpentine is a Gumshoe Sword and Sorcery system set in and around the city of Eversink. It is "a game of investigation, heroism, sly politics, and bloody savagery, set in a fantasy city rife with skulduggery and death".~~
~~This will be a somewhat short campaign, around 10 or so sessions. I have pretty much no experience with Gumshoe so this can go horribly wrong. Or horriblyfun. We'll begin with the "official" cases and wrap it up with something I manage to conjure. Of course we will begin with a session of character creation and setting talk.~~
26+6=1