Trip's Life (Recent episodes)
|
5 Most Recent Comments
|
|---|
2018-11-24: "Re: Useful and important" by Trip
2018-11-24: "Useful and important" by marithlizard
2018-11-03: "Re: what's wrong with liking routine?" by Trip
2018-11-03: "what's wrong with liking routine?" by marithlizard
2018-10-25: "Re: Road to El Dorado" by Trip
|
|
11 December 2018 - Tuesday
[ . . . ]
Make a comment!
10 December 2018 - Monday
[ . . . ]
Make a comment!
9 December 2018 - Sunday
It's the yearly gingerbread party! The party was kind of thin this
year because apparently a lot of people were sick, but I listened to
people talk, and ate way too much Party Snack™ and even decorated
half of a house. I am still terrible at parties, though.
Interspecies Reviewers vol 1 (Amahara, masha) is a little
bit sexy but mostly ridiculous, because how can reviewing brothels in a
fantasy setting be otherwise? It's also mostly straight, although they
at least acknowledge there are women and queer people &c. Also, bonus
points for knowing that hyena girls are better hung than you.
Words:
127.
Make a comment!
8 December 2018 - Saturday
Hurray, it's turkey chili!
- Sailor Moon Super S 134: Maybe Chibi-Usa didn't imagine
Pegasus after all!
- Non Non Biyori 7: There must be many dedicated and
competent teachers in Japan, but you wouldn't know it by watching anime.
- BBK/BRNK 1-2: No one hates it yet!
- Love, Chuunibyo, & Other Delusions 2.11: Still
adorable.
Words:
153.
Make a comment!
7 December 2018 - Friday
Hurray, there's a new The Good Place! The major plot twist
makes it seem like a season finale, but it's only episode 3.9! Were there
three double-length episodes earlier? It's tagged as #36 overall, so maybe.
I haz a confuze.
Words:
137.
Make a comment!
6 December 2018 - Thursday
Words:
162.
Make a comment!
5 December 2018 - Wednesday
After missing two weeks due to holiday gluttony and the opposite of fun,
we (minus Brooks) gathered to eat Korean food and 13th Age. We were
successful at one of these, but less so the other. I guess you do need a
brain for gaming, otherwise you end up making plans like falling over dead
and exploding into flames while in disguise and then running away.
Words:
122.
Make a comment!
4 December 2018 - Tuesday
Avalon is still alive, but her job is still horrible. :(
EDENS ZERO (Hiro Mashima) is a new series by the same person
who wrote the wildly popular Fairy Tail, and seems to have the
three important elements for shounen manga: a male character with
improbable fighting skills, a female character with breasts, and an animal
mascot.
Words:
108.
Make a comment!
3 December 2018 - Monday
I don't want to get up and start a work week, I want to stay in bed
forever, because it's December.
Words:
177. New keyboard is loud, because mechanical, and a little confusing
because I'm used to my old keyboard that had the CMD key in the wrong
place, but otherwise very satisfactory. Which it should be, for that
price!
Make a comment!
2 December 2018 - Sunday
Once again, it's PAD&D5!
Having survived both the fight scene where the ground was literally
lava (monsters) and the following epic "Yo Momma" competition, the
somewhat hungover Heroines of Red Larch set forth to rescue the innocent
hostages in the encounter when they were flung into the elemental planes
(weeks ago in their personal time, later this morning by objective
calendars).
Unfortunately, despite Mara's abuse of the rust bag of
tricks to get a riding lion for herself and a riding goat for
Hazelrae, the Heorines are still on the road when they encounter many of
the people they hope to rescue, dragging a seige engine under guard by
[SPOILER] and associated monsters. The enemy riders race back,
presumably to fetch reinforcements, leaving the Heroines to defeat a
bunch of [SPOILER], a few [SPOILER], a surprise [SPOILER] that almost
eats Rimardo, and the horrifying [SPOILER]. It's not an easy fight, but
eventually the Heroines rescue Rimardo and do away with the [SPOILER]
and all the other enemies. None of the hostages are even hurt much! However,
they do need to be escorted to safety, and the Heroines need to regroup
and recharge before going to rescue the others.
Words:
FAIL. I can't be expected to work without commas!
Weak total: 1158.
Make a comment!
1 December 2018 - Saturday
Nonny had his birthday party with other kids today, so the usual
evening schedule was disrupted, but he was so happy with his new mermaid
tail blanket that we can't complain!
- Non Non Biyori 6: This is not the show in which things
happen, is it?
- My Hero Academia 61-63: Yep, that's pretty much the
only way Bakugo can express his feelings. But they are valid feelings!
And now it is the end of season 3, so we will have to watch something
else until season 4 is out!
I had more thoughts about not-Starfinder,
but what even is the point?
Words:
47, because my keyboard suddenly stopped producing commas! (And
less-than signs, but I don't write HTML by hand as much now that I have
Scrivener.) This is
awkward.
Make a comment!
30 November 2018 - Friday
Words:
177.
Make a comment!
29 November 2018 - Thursday
We tried watching some
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but apparently Marith has gone off
it.
Because I'm still not very sensible, I was thinking about aliens and
inventing details of the star dragons and their three life stages of
which the middle one is playable, but then I realized that's not the
indie way. Give the players just the core, and some leading questions
about what's probably important, and let them go from there.
"Dozens of non-sapient (but adorable) juveniles of your species merged
to form you. You are larger and stronger than most sophonts, even humans,
but without the hyperactive need for constant motion. The right single
action at the right moment is more effective than any amount of
warm-blooded scurrying, and in the meantime, there is contemplation to be
done. Someday, if you live long enough, if you are worthy, the correct
action will be to merge with thousands of others to form a star dragon,
glorious and terrible and with concerns that your present self cannot
imagine."
"Questions: What is your species like? Reptilian? Insectile?
Crab-like? Amphibian? Pick two capabilities you have: (list of things like
natural weaponry, really big, breath underwater, etc). How do the juveniles
live? Who takes care of them? Juveniles can do something you can't; what
lost ability do you miss? Who decides when you are worthy to ascend? How do
they judge you? How do they decide who you will merge with? What mystery of
the universe is associated with the star dragons?"
Only, you know, better written.
Words:
245.
Make a comment!
28 November 2018 - Wednesday
No 13th Age,
Ken is sick. Neither Marith nor I is, so probably it's not something he
got from Roseville? Who knows, though.
Oh, that's how the doom of Over the Garden Wall is
resolved. Well, okay, then!
Bring the Fire (Craig Schaefer) wraps up the "Wisdom's
Grave" trilogy and in fact brings all four of the author's
fantasy/horror serieses to a conclusion in which all mysteries are
explained and many villains get their comeuppance. It is a little too
concrete and mundane in some ways for the subject matter, but it does
wrap things up, and set up for a vast future of [SPOILER] and [SPOILER]
and despair, so that's... good?
Words:
220. Maybe it will work better this way?
Make a comment!
27 November 2018 - Tuesday
Words:
211, still meh.
Make a comment!
26 November 2018 - Monday
Boo, Monday!
Hurray, Avalon! Although her life is very frustrating because of
humans.
Hurray, Mars Mole!
Marith and I managed to watch the next four episodes of Over
the Garden Wall. Wait, there are only like two more?! But, the
doom! How will the doom be resolved?
Because I am very foolish, I had to think about better ways to do
Starfinder.
I mean, other than just taking all the D&D out.
D&D is always, "humans can be any class, can have a bonus to any
stat are super-diverse, but nah. If other species have to be
stereotyped, then humans are space orcs. Give them extra hit points or harm
slots or whatever, or let them keep rampaging for a bit after being
mortally wounded, or both, and maybe some extra strength; they already have
the belief that honor and glory come from murdering other sophonts and the
inability to form bonds with anyone they haven't met in person.
Since all other species are being made up from whole cloth, we can
add to the effect by making them some combination of smaller, more
physically specialized, or less vigorous than humans. Like, a giant lizard alien
that's stronger than human would be okay if it were also pretty torpid.
Oh, and any specialization should not be long-distance running, let
humans have one bonus that's not murder-related.
It's no longer the 1950s, so we don't have to believe that the 6' tall,
strong-jawed American man is the evolutionary optimum all other planets
vainly strive for, but probably playable species should be somewhat
humanlike. (Rats with flamethrowers, for example.) Since we're in the
fantasy genre, we can blame this on supernatural forces (which also
shortens the timeline so it's reasonable to have comparable species
coexisting). Maybe the Universal Mother Goddess has a face like a human's
(for compatability with existing fantasy art, probably breasts too). Maybe
the stars in the local cluster formed from a nebula with a high
concentration of the Man rune. Maybe the Ancients put like with like when
they stocked habitable planets so that every species would have somewhat
compatible neighbors. Etc.
Ugh, too much thinking about something no one cares about!
Blargh.
Words:
258, but meh.
Make a comment!
25 November 2018 - Sunday
I did some shopping and stuff, like a responsible adult, but nothing
interesting.
Words:
159.
Weekly total: 595, but it was only a fraction of a week.
Make a comment!
24 November 2018 - Saturday
Roseville Thanksgiving! As usual, Al and Sherilyn were wonderful hosts,
and I was a mediocre guest.
Besides the important events of eating ridiculous amounts of food and
taking kids to the park, we played Azul (I'm still
terrible at it) and Roll for the
Galaxy (still terrible at this too), and broke open and played Sagrada (a
new thing to be terrible at). Some people played Gloomhaven,
but it only has room for four players, so I read
Lies Sleeping.
Marith played a little bit of games with us, but mostly she
slept. She was better at sleeping than me, though, so I can't complain.
On Friday night, Robert ran the
Sentinel Comics RPG
quickstart adventure with pregen characters. It went pretty well! The
system is simple and not rigorous, about like
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
(from which I suspect it is partially descended), and also like any of
the Marvel RPGs, it seems intended mostly for playing characters from
the comics, written up by the developers. It's just that the Sentinels
comics don't actually exist. Anyway, many spiderbots were defeated and a
good time was had by all. (I am terrible at playing a
speedster/gadgeteer, but in a different way than I am terrible at board
games. Or maybe the same way.)
Because he is into Pathfinder, Al
had the Starfinder
core book lying around and Dave, Ken, and I all flipped through it to
varying degrees. The cover art has a rat with a flamethrower, which is
promising, and the game does have some ideas that are not terrible at first
glance, like the bug people who are a defective offshoot of the Hive-Mind
Space Locust Menace, and the star/black hole-themed space paladin class,
and hyperdrive that tears pieces off other planes, but it also has hit
points per level and spell slots per day and endless lists of weapons and
feats which are almost all useless because there are only a handful of
optimal builds. Space fantasy could be interesting, but not if I have to
slog through D&D to do it. (Scum and
Villainy would probably work with little change if you didn't mind the
mission-oriented structure.) Also, more game designers need to read tumblr
so they don't feel obliged to make stereotypical hulking lizard guys with a
brutal yet somehow honorable warrior culture to be space orcs when humans
fill that niche perfectly.
I thought I was doing okay after about two days of sleeping not in my
own bed, but then I yelled at Ken over something completely trivial.
Probably this means I should always stay home and never visit again.
When I got home, I actually had energy like you're supposed to after
a vacation! But I used it all on chores and saving Marith from a giant
bug.
Lies Sleeping (Ben Aaronovitch) is the seventh and
apparently last of the "Rivers of London" series. At least, it wraps up the
plot threads from the first book until now, even though there is clearly a
lot of other stuff that is or could be happening in that world. A series
with Abigail, and maybe witch girl from the sixth book and some of the
younger rivers who are not down with the status quo, could be awesome.
Words:
VACATION.
Useful and important by marithlizard (Wed Nov 28 19:31:14 2018)
Saving me from the giant bug was EXTREMELY important and useful! And I did worse than you at the games we played, so nyah, or something. And Robert seemed very happy about the Sentinels game, so you were a good enough player to support rather than traumatize the relatively inexperienced GM :)
Re: Useful and important by Trip (Thu Nov 29 13:23:29 2018)
It was definitely a very impressive bug.
Make a comment!
20 November 2018 - Tuesday
Last Dragon Standing (Rachel Aaron) wraps up the
"Heartstriker" series. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying it is
pretty much a happy ending, but there is a lot of drama where one failed
roll could have ruined everything. Also, there may be mushy stuff.
The new "Rivers of London" book is out, so I reread The Hanging
Tree (Ben Aaronovitch) to make sure I'm ready. Oh, that's how that
worked out, right!
Words:
222.
Make a comment!
19 November 2018 - Monday
Out of a probably self-destructive desire to not miss too much work,
I took the earliest eye doctor appointment I could, which meant getting
up an hour and a half early. This did not lead to keeping my eyes wide
open, but eventually they were certified as "no worse than expected"
which really is probably about the most I could have hoped for.
Now I can try to get glasses that are not ancient and terrible. (I
don't need my eyewear to be +10 levels, really.)
A Dragon of a Different Color (Rachel Aaron) is the fourth
book in the "Heartstrikers" series. The antagonists' plans are really
getting going now, but most of the book is cosmology and talking to
spirits, so that's cool.
Words:
214.
Make a comment!
18 November 2018 - Sunday
No gaming, only Zuul. And a new microwave.
Since we're all caught up on The Good Place, Marith and
I watched the first four episodes of
Over the Garden Wall. Well, that was spooky. And also
nonsensical. And what's up with the turtles?
The second omnibus of Dragon Half (Ryusuke Mita),
containing the original volumes 3-4, continues well past where the anime
ended and not very productively. It seems like side quests on side quests,
which offer lots of room for gags, but at least the in the previous omnibus
it seemed like the gags were in service of something.
Words:
147.
Make a comment!
17 November 2018 - Saturday
Nonny's wish for his birthday dinner was
sushi with videos and capsules, and
so that is what we did! Then he got presents and also cake!
- Sailor Moon Super S 131-132: More monsters oppressing
girls' beautiful dreams, but it does them no good. As usual, the
biggest threat to Sailor Moon's success is Usagi.
- Non Non Biyori 4: Wow, an airplane!
- My Hero Academia 53-56: Apparently there's a reason UA
has the reputation it does. (And it's all because Eraserhead is such
a tsundere.)
Words:
181.
Make a comment!
16 November 2018 - Friday
Yay, more The Good Place! In 3.7 and 3.8, we get to see
how weird humans are, how annoying demons are, and how awesome Janet is.
Words:
139.
Make a comment!
15 November 2018 - Thursday
Ken lured me to play Gloomhaven,
but although we successfully defeated a large map full of annoying monsters
at difficulty +1, it took until almost 23:00. This just does not work.
Minimum Wage Magic (Rachel Aaron) is the first of a spinoff
series from the series about the dragons in a not-at-all-Shadowrun future
of returned magic. Mostly it is about a young mage with a complicated
backstory trying to make her way in the sketchy city-of-no-laws. There
is a hot guy, and also annoying loan terms.
Prism is a
hard game to describe. It's very simple and diceless, everyone is
merperson and probably queer, it's about conflict resolution and
relationships, the art is sexy (because yes, that kind of relationship
is definitely included) but too abstract to be NSFW. It is not an
action-adventure game.
Words:
141.
Make a comment!
14 November 2018 - Wednesday
Once again, it is time for 13th Age and Indian food!
This session was spent entirely in exploration of a creepy cave city
full of magical nonsense and deranged cultists. We're pretty sure it's
the right place, we just need to figure out what to do to it.
Words:
144.
Make a comment!
13 November 2018 - Tuesday
Ghirardelli has been off his feed a bit lately, so Marith helped me
cart him to the vet. Highways are difficult, but we made it eventually,
and Ghirardelli was very well-behaved and did not give the vet or the
vet-techs any trouble at all. (Because he is an excellent kitty.)
Now his neck lump is drained, and tomorrow we will know the results
of his blood work, and he did eat some when we got home, so probably he
will be okay.
Words:
206.
Make a comment!
12 November 2018 - Monday
It's Veterans' Day (or Remembrance Day, if you're in a country that
prefers peace to war), so no work for me. Instead I went shopping, and
then went shopping some more. Now my clothes have a better place to live
than a laundry hamper. Also I had to throw away a bunch of old clothes,
so they are no longer taking up space in my closet.
It's Holiday Candy Season at Trader Joe's.
Words:
155.
Make a comment!
11 November 2018 - Sunday
The air is still full of smoke, so Dave and I walked less briskly to
PAD&D5,
but were not overrun by fires.
As the Heroines of Red Larch finally emerge from the depths, their
new friend [SPOILER] is surprised to be abducted for a talking-to by
[SPOILER], but it's not really the Heroines' problem. They hardly knew
the guy!
Their great tour of the planes of existence has returned them a
couple of days before they were banished, so the Heroines consider
averting the whole somewhat embarrassing episode, but decide to leave
the fabric of time intact for now and instead head for Red Larch, where
they know trouble is about to happen.
Fortunately, Red Larch has levelled up militarily since the Heroines
first visited, but unfortunately, the trouble knows that Red Larch has
Heroines, and has laid a clever ambush for them. As the Heroines approach
the gate, suddenly EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE! This is extremely inconvenient in
many ways, but although things look bad for a bit, the Heroines manage to
defeat the enemy leaders and the ambush falls apart. The town is saved!
(More saved than it would have been on its own, anyway.)
After an all-night victory party (long rests are for wimps!), the
Heroines head out to rescue the village that was taken when they were
banished. Surely the enemy will not expect them to attack immediately after
the banishment!
Next session is 2018-12-02, it looks like.
Words:
166.
Weekly total: 1237. Ugh.
Make a comment!
|
