What are y'all up to these days?

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family tried playing a board game (trekking the national parks). I was accused of picking on my wife. We tried playing exploding kittens. I was accused of picking on my son. Both have done the same actions on me. So, I guess we aren't playing that sort of game anymore. Too bad.
 
Too bad; I find Exploding Kittens to be a fun game. I was in on the kickstarter because I thought the concept hilarious
 
Too bad; I find Exploding Kittens to be a fun game. I was in on the kickstarter because I thought the concept hilarious
Kittens is a good time, it's a lightweight piece of fun but it ends quick and it's a laugh once the real violence starts. I really like it as an opener.
 
As has happened in the past when visiting friends in Atlanta, I got to play a DC Heroes one-shot. More specifically, I've been playing the original Huntress in a late-80's Earth-2 where the Crisis On Infinite Earths never happened.
Wait, wait let me see if my Batman extended gallery/genealogy lore skill is still working... Earth 2 Huntress is batman and Selina Kyle's daughter, and teamed up with Batgirl Barbara Gordon in her Oracle phase with the Birds of prey. Huntress was also Batgirl for a while in the No man's land storyline as well. overall, is probably a better version of Nightwing both powerwise and in terms of personality.

Man, playing Batman Gotham city Chronicles is really paying off in Batman trivia proficiency
 
Strange Tales of Songling, a game I am the editor on, is nearing release. It uses the same system as the wuxia game Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, but is much lighter and more focused on supernatural investigation. I'd say the relationship between the two games is similar to that between Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. I've both run and played the game, and I've really enjoyed it from both perspectives. BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan has just posted a preview of the game on his blog.
 
Strange Tales of Songling, a game I am the editor on, is nearing release. It uses the same system as the wuxia game Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, but is much lighter and more focused on supernatural investigation. I'd say the relationship between the two games is similar to that between Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. I've both run and played the game, and I've really enjoyed it from both perspectives. BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan has just posted a preview of the game on his blog.
Sold!
 
How do you manage to keep them apart? I'd have plots bleeding in from the other games.
They are all very, very different despite sharing a system. The settings couldn't be less alike!

As an interesting point, my Weirder Stuff (Stranger Things) game ended up sooner than expected last Saturday with the Kids and Teens getting together, comparing notes - and VCR tapes - pulling in a reporter from Denver, and blowing things wide open! Fallout from that will definitely flavor the next time! We will be starting up a new game of StarWars-ish next week, with the PCs pulling an A-Team, trying to help people out in the setting of The Mandelorian.
 
I have been once again sucked into the OSE, B/X, RC vortex. I'm planning on getting the OSE set. But it has to wait till christmas stuff, and other concerns are met first. But meanwhile I have been writing stuff for a B/X setting thats in my head. I've started posting bits to my blog. (Only one piece so far but theirs more in the queue.)
 
Son and wife decided tonight they wanted me to run d&d for them. I got him the essentials kit here a few months back. He’s interested in probability now, so it should be a good fit. He wants to play the lazy halfling rogue he played the last time I tried with him, and his mother wants to play a “woman with a bow like diablo”.

I am happy, but also cautious. They are entering my special place! They are going to fuck it all up and cause me grief as they don’t do it right! Damn them! ;)
 
Still playing in a D&D 5e game. Have been running the BOL Hack for my friends- what a fun game to run. At some point soon we'll be starting to play Triumphant, so have been in the process of creating a character (actually recreating a character- one of my favorites from an old Marvel Heroic game).
 
Son and wife decided tonight they wanted me to run d&d for them. I got him the essentials kit here a few months back. He’s interested in probability now, so it should be a good fit. He wants to play the lazy halfling rogue he played the last time I tried with him, and his mother wants to play a “woman with a bow like diablo”.

I am happy, but also cautious. They are entering my special place! They are going to fuck it all up and cause me grief as they don’t do it right! Damn them! ;)
They'll do just fine:thumbsup:!
 
I have been once again sucked into the OSE, B/X, RC vortex.
I'm here to help:

An integral part of fluid dynamics is vorticity. Heuristically, it measures the local rotation of a fluid parcel. For solid objects, we do not speak of the vorticity of an object but instead we refer to its angular velocity. These two concepts are related, but vorticity is more useful when discussing rotating objects that deform as a fluid does.

The vorticity of a given velocity field within a given plan, is computed by choosing any two orthogonal axes in that plane and adding the angular velocity of each axis. In a solid object, or a fluid that rotates like a solid object (aptly named solid body rotation), the vorticity is twice the angular velocity since each axis rotates at the same rate. However, in a fluid the two axes can rotate at very different rates and even different directions. It is even possible that each axis can rotate, yet the net vorticity is zero (see irrotational vortex).

If the motion of a fluid is strictly confined to lie in a plane then the vorticity vector is taken to be orthogonal to the plane and cannot change directions or tilt. The only aspect of the vorticity that can change is its magnitude. It is believed that this transfer of energy to larger scales is connected with the formation of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.

In three-dimensional fluid motion, the vorticity vector is three-dimensional in that it has components parallel to each axis, X, Y, and Z: the Z component is parallel to the Z axis and describes the rotation rate in the XY plane. It is because of this dichotomy that there is a qualitative difference in behavior between two-dimensional turbulence and three-dimensional turbulence. In the former, there is a tendency for vortices to clump together and form larger vortices, whereas in the latter the vortical motions are torn apart and the energy cascades down to the smallest scales, where it is then diffused away.

Mathematically, the vorticity of a given velocity field
eq1

is defined to be the curl of the velocity field and is usually denoted with the Greek letter Omega,
eq2

where we have used the conventional nabla symbol (a triangular symbol resembling an inverted Greek delta) for the gradient:
eq3

In component form, the vorticity is found by expanding the determinant above:
eq4
 
I have a new player joining my game tomorrow. I assembled a document so they're not coming in blind. Pretty sure I've mentioned all this stuff on this forum before, but it's scattered here & there, so I compiled it into something more concise. I figure I'll let my players give New Player their version of The Story So Far, rather than writing one up myself. I always find it interesting to hear what my players thought was interesting/ funny/ cool/ etc. versus what I intended to be interesting/ funny/ cool/ etc.

Here's the doc:

The game universe:

The PCs are located in the City of Seven Shards. The central area of the city is shaped like a heptagon, and within it, the world is not too different from contemporary Chicago. Within that heptagon is a building that appears to be a heptagon-shaped nightclub which serves as the HEPCATS base.

Outside of the central heptagon, each of the seven shards of the city reflects a different genre of adventure fiction. Within a particular shard, things like people’s behaviour and the laws of physics work as they would in that type of fiction.

The seven shards are:

  • The Saguaro Plains (Western)
  • Les Rues Sanglantes (Gothic Horror)
  • Neotopia AKA Rayburg (Retro-future sci fi a la Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, etc.)
  • St. Bronze’s Quarter (1920s & 1930s style pulp adventure)
  • Neon Valley (cyberpunk)
  • Gygaxistan (D&D-esque fantasy)
  • Abyssia (What’s there is not widely known. It is currently inaccessible and off limits)

The PC team:

You are the newest team in the HEPCATS organization of High Expertise Professional Covert Action Teams. For most citizens of the City of Seven Shards, travelling from one shard to another causes extreme physical discomfort and sometimes mental trauma as well. There is something special about you and your colleagues that makes you immune to these negative effects. As such, you have been recruited to one of the teams that travels to the different shards and Solves Problems (™).
 
Ran a Cepheus Engine one-shot last night. The youngest of our group is back home from college for the holidays, and he wanted to play something besides D&D 5e.

I had kept my adventure notes pretty loose, in part because I wasn't certain just how much playing we would actually get done. As it turns out that was for the best, as the setup went sideways pretty quickly, and took on an almost absurdist, comedy-of-errors aspect to it. But at least everyone had fun, even if it wasn't what any of us were actually expecting.
 
Ran a Cepheus Engine one-shot last night. The youngest of our group is back home from college for the holidays, and he wanted to play something besides D&D 5e.

I had kept my adventure notes pretty loose, in part because I wasn't certain just how much playing we would actually get done. As it turns out that was for the best, as the setup went sideways pretty quickly, and took on an almost absurdist, comedy-of-errors aspect to it. But at least everyone had fun, even if it wasn't what any of us were actually expecting.
Are you describing Dumarest's Traveller game?
 
Heh heh...a friend wants me to run a WEG Star Wars Life Day adventure for Christmas. Unfortunately I won't have the time.
Endless Flight and Ghost Whistler battle evil Imperial forces to help Dumarest
reach his imperiled gaming group in time for his Life Day adventure,
the most important gaming session of the year!

WITH SPECIAL GUEST STARS
BUNCH
THE BUTCHER
BEATRICE ARTHUR
HARVEY KORMAN

THE JEFFERSON STARSHIP
AND
VOROS AS HIMSELF

8PM ON CBS
 
went and saw Trevor Noah in concert last night. He didn't do much political humor, which made it more enjoyable. Put me in a good mood before my work week started
 
Well...a few text messages later, I may be running a WEG Star Wars game in January. I warned prospective participants that anything post-Star Wars* is not canon, though I may take bits and pieces from such material, and not to be surprised if stuff from the Marvel comic books turn up.
4979269-3591839668-Jaxxo.png
* 1977 theatrical release, none of rejiggered stuff
 
Well...a few text messages later, I may be running a WEG Star Wars game in January. I warned prospective participants that anything post-Star Wars* is not canon...

If I were ever to run a Star Wars game, I would like to use that same setup, except that I would also make Alan Dean Foster's 1978 Star Wars novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye canon.
 
Cleaning up less poop. After two years we seem to have my kids poop issues under control. It's mind blowing to go from your day planned around poop emergencies to what I presume is every other parents normal day.

So weird.
 
If I were ever to run a Star Wars game, I would like to use that same setup, except that I would also make Alan Dean Foster's 1978 Star Wars novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye canon.
Well, I always leave the door open to include whatever I want, I just like to make it clear not to expect anything from the later films to be valid unless and untiI I confirm it.
 
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I played with myself a lot today...because it seems that gamebooks are making a comeback in Eurasia* - and I'm posting it here, because I do consider them a kind of RPG-lite!
I find that intersting. And maybe someting I should take a closer look into? I kinda have a gamebook-ready setting from telling tales** to First Daughter:shade:!

*I just found that a Bulgarian gamebook author had managed to get his books translated in five languages, including Chinese (and English, Latvian, Romanian, and I think French). Well, I like his books, too - or rather, the kids like them. He writes kid's gamebooks.
But Chinese is why I'm saying Eurasia now...also, it seems there's a thriving gamebooks community in France and Spain.

**My tales over the years have included subjects like space princesses besting assassins in sword duels during Wars of Assassins, and ninja princesses fighting off robots, of course:devil:!

Cleaning up less poop. After two years we seem to have my kids poop issues under control. It's mind blowing to go from your day planned around poop emergencies to what I presume is every other parents normal day.

So weird.
Congrats:grin:!
 
I saw two new Endless Quest books at my bookstores and flipped through them. They are much more nicely produced than the old FF and CoA books with full colour art and better paperstock. Clearly for kids as were most of the old gamebooks except for Sorcery! and Dragon Warriors which seemed relatively more mature in tone.

DAB2F168-CAE7-43E1-AF6D-D44E5C5FA608.jpeg
 
I have that book! I enjoyed it.

Last night, our D&D group found ourselves in something resembling an Egyptian tomb, where we fought giant scorpions, regular mummies, and a pharaoh mummy who put a plague of locusts on us. We won in the end, but just barely.

We got enough XP for my rhox barbarian, Rocky, to level up before the next session. Need to decide whether I'm taking a tenth level of Barbarian, or a second level of Fighter.
 
Metahuman News
We’re closing out the year with a final one page adventure. Well, not so much one page adventure as a short adventure. What started out as a simple short evolved into a full rescue scenario. Before we get to the adventure, a bit of background. Metahumans Rising has a full setting developed for it. Unfortunately, a lot of the content moved to stretch goals help keep our Kickstarter goals manageable. Now, don’t think that just because we missed those screen shots the original setting for Metahumans Rising is lost forever. As we develop new content, expect to learn more of our in house setting. So, why is this important?
Some fans of Metahumans Rising may have noticed a few references to the Eisenreich that snuck into the core book. So, who are the Eisenreich? Nothing short of modern day Nazis who survived World War II by going underground, literally. And, who better to try and kidnap and attempt to usurp the power of Santa? So our Christmas adventure also includes a brief introduction to one of the factions we wish we could have included in the core book.
Without further ado, we offer you Stille Nacht – The Iron Santa Initiative a Silver Age inspired adventure.
http://housedok.com/stille-nacht-the-iron-santa-initiative/
Want to learn more about Metahumans Rising? Check us out at: http://housedok.com/
Order a copy of the core book: https://studio2publishing.com/products/metahumans-rising?_pos=2&_sid=145b3fa95&_ss=r
Or, pick up the PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/277614/Metahumans-Rising
 
This post will take a while for me and I'm going to take some breaks while writing it.

I am still in a situation of too much gaming. I got one troupe to play Forbidden Lands, another for a Pathfinder campaign and another group for which I run Dungeon of the Mad Mage for.

My housing situation has improved quite a lot. Nowadays I can see the burgomaster's house from my windows. Also I have gained custody of my only son. So it is only us two lads in this flat at the moment. My son is currently off to Spain for the festivity season.

To be honest, for this season, I anticipated a lot more sex drugs & rock'n'roll, for this vacation break, but I'm kinda struggling in getting any of those.

I probably better leave the post as it is, as I'm feeling an alcohol rush coming on...
 
Well, I always leave the door open to include whatever I want, I just like to make it clear not to expect anything from the later films to be valid unless and untiI I confirm it.
Damn. I was hoping to have a light saber with a fabulously unsafe energy pommel, or one of those even more dangerous double-ended ones .. For my gungan jedi.
Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from insanity.
 
Damn. I was hoping to have a light saber with a fabulously unsafe energy pommel, or one of those even more dangerous double-ended ones .. For my gungan jedi.
And yet it'd still probably be better than anything George Lucas or Disney have come up with in the past 20 years...
 
Damn. I was hoping to have a light saber with a fabulously unsafe energy pommel, or one of those even more dangerous double-ended ones .. For my gungan jedi.
Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from insanity.

True story. Ages ago, I was asked to play in a d20 Star Wars game. I had the book at that time, so I looked through it for something I'd want to play.

And no shit, the only thing that seemed really interesting was the idea of a Gungan Jedi. I turned that idea over and over in my head and the more I did, the more I liked it.

I made up the character, and I was super excited to play it. I took time and practiced how to talk like what I imagined a Gungan Jedi would. I definitely had a slight comedic bent, but it was a serious character. I was hyped.

When I showed the GM my character, he blanched. Despite the focus on that version of Star Wars RPG on the prequels, he said "we don't do anything from the prequels and definitely no Gungans."

As that was all I really wanted to play. I politely declined to make up another character and didn't bother them any further. I was invited to a few other games, but I never bothered taking them up on it after that.
 
Meesa tink dese not de droids you lookin' for?

Yep. Something like that. I had a sort of Tom Baker Doctor Who vibe I was going for with him: present the image of the buffoon so the opposition makes the mistake of underestimation. No telling if I had the chops to pull it off, though.
 
Friday was game night and we almost had a full house. One guy couldn’t show last minute, but one of the players brothers showed up for the holidays and played an elf fighter with a repeating crossbow.

the party managed to sneak into the naga city and discovered the hobgoblins of the red hand negotiating a peace treaty and alliance. After a lot of debate, they decided to take the option of presenting themselves as representatives of the local area and make heir own peace treaty, with an eye towards breaking up the hobgoblin one . The sneaky people snuck, and everyone did well, even the Paladin who used his streetwise to move around the city disguised aa a lizardman. He also used his amazing insight to determine that the god king was pro-alliance with the hobgoblins and the consort was not. This valuable tidbit of information allowed them to make an educated course of action. they ended up pooping their talents in oratory, courtesy, commerce, and strategy to write a convincing note. The dragonborn delivered it and they now have an audience with the god king and his consort for next time.

a little slower than our normal games, but a lot of tension. Good stuff.
 
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