Cap'n Voodoo's Freebooter PBP

Game Master voodoo chili

It's a malaise the world o'er chief. I've not been the most proactive of late - especially in my own Starfinder game (as the good Cap'n can attest).

What with Aberdeen City returning to localised lockdown and the recent fatal train crash in nearby Stonehaven, its been a grind to summon the mental energy at the moment... (again not an excuse, just the sad way o' it).

Hoping to recharge a little o'er the weekend and get after it more.

Strange days indeed. I'm just glad we're all still able to post as we can and keep sailing. Slow or fast, this game remains a pleasurable diversion for me and I appreciate y'all's persistence.

Likewise, mates.

Shipmates, just a heads up that my posting might be erratic this week. Got a bunch of RL stuff that is stymieing my creative flow and has frankly ground me down mentally...

I’m still missing my boy terribly, and while we’ve discussed getting another rescue pup of late, a sense of “replacement guilt” has weighed on me heavily. Additionally while gym's reopen in a week’s time here in Scotland, but it's been a long time coming, and that lack of “iron therapy” has been acutely felt of late in my mental wellbeing.

Lastly, but not least, I often set myself up as a defacto union rep in my workplace. Lately there’s been some issues that have put me at loggerheads with upper-management, whilst trying to do right by co-workers and the small team I’m responsible for. Sleepless nights and frustration has ensued, which has also contributed to my headspace being less than stellar.

I’ve taken Friday off, to bookend a bank holiday this weekend. Hoping to use the time to recharge and deload. If my posting is off, or I go awol for a day or three hope you’ll understand why in light of above.

Thanks ahead of time for your collective patience and understanding lads.

Gary/BD

No worries. I took last Friday off bc it's. a. lot. Enjoy your holiday.

I believe everyone is a bit off kilter with the situation in the world today. We've persisted through up and down times with this group / game, and I'm sure it will be here when we're all ready to jump in full speed.

I've got a job change for the first time in 25 years that involves a lot more responsibility, so my concentration is elsewhere as well.

We're pulling for you...

Oh where, oh where has the little ragamuffin halfling gone? oh where, oh where can he be? With dreaded hair and a crusty kilt, oh where, oh where can he be?

Limping along - conflux of chaos leading to a weekend of invalidity with flu-ness that I'm now crawling out of.

Stay afloat and feel better, Dibbs.

How are you feeling, Dibbs? Work transition OK, Dings? Everyone hanging in there?

We're having a bit of an Australian summer here in California at the moment. Hell of a year.

'Tis indeed a hell of a year Cap'n - the 'hits' just keep on coming eh?

I'm still here and not going anywhere in the metaphorical sense, just getting crunched by the travails of a significantly increased work pressure (longer, later, harder, busier) and my kids growing up (bedtimes getting later, less free time, etc). Man-flu didn't help either.

My bad. Too much 5E...

I wondered if that's what was going on. 5e has become my system of choice lately as well.

Yay! Let's remake our characters and switch!!!

Yay! Let's remake our characters and switch!!!

I am in one Pathfinder 2.0 game (converted Emerald Spire) and man, I REALLY wish that game would just switch to D&D 5e. Def not following up w PF2.

I have been converting some PF adventures to 5e. It's not too, too hard as mainly it's just simplifying the monsters. It is kinda hard to hit the proper challenge level though. I've had a couple games that came near to a TPK and one that was really a cakewalk. Probably as much a player balance thing as skewed conversion though.

I'm OK with PF2, but I'm mostly pretty system-agnostic--if the GM and the adventure are good, for the most part the system doesn't matter too much. The key AFAICT is to come to each system with minimal expectations. That's kind of hard to do sometimes with PF1/PF2/5e, where the superficial similarities can mask some deep structural differences in design philosophy.

Chappies - work has wiped me out this week guys, been a long weekend of duty calls and after action meetings. Likely to be closer to Friday before I'm in position to post. Please bot Ol' Kauly as/when required.

Good luck with that, mate. Hoping things calm down soon for you.

Shipmates - apologies for my absence over the last week, as I touched on previously was burned out with work.

Bad news is things are continuing to ramp up over the next month here in my Ops role, and I’ve a bunch of front loading to do ahead of my planned seasonal family vacation to Dubai for 2 weeks from 12-29 Dec.

Knock on has been I’ve been mentally wiped and struggled for motivation and impetus. I’ve always taken pride in being a player who didn’t just post for postings sake, and enjoy the role-play as much as the roll-play.

As a result I’ve taken the very, very tough decision to cut back on the games I play in, and run, and try and focus on those games I’ve belonged to longest. Next few weeks will tell if a reduced game load will help and allow me to manage my input whilst tempering it with RL demands.

So in short I’m still here, and hope to be a productive crew member, but would ask that the huge level of patience and understanding you’ve all already granted to me is extended for a few more weeks.

I’ll try and post whenever possible, but if my creative funk continues please bot Kauly to keep the impetus or have him take a background role for the time being.

No need to apologize. 2020 is the mutha-F'er of all years. I mean the good ol US here might burn to the ground next week. I think EVERYONE is stressed, depressed, and just freaked the hell out at the moment. If anyone needs a break, just say so. My own coping mechanism is compulsive escapism so ill be around, but the last thing I want is to increase anyone's stress due to my own strange ways.

Echoing the words of the Cap'n BD, 2020 is indeed (in the vernacular of her majesty) our annus horribilis. Ride them waves and keep your head and heart above waters, we'll keep the kettle on the stove and have a warm cup o' scottish blend wi' a tot ready for ye whenever you're passing through.

Another hard agree on 2020, though I'm not challenging worse and there's still a bit over two months left to go. So far the best thing to happen this year is my daughter getting married (on 10/10/2020, or--for Kaul & Dibbets--10/10/2020), even if it came with its own ration of stress when the best man got COVID before the wedding. It was also in Wisconsin, which is in the midst of a major uptick in the disease rate. So there were eleven of us there, including the bride, groom, and officiant, and we weren't able to have a meal afterwards.

Kaul, if we have to slow down a bit to give you some breathing room I'm good with that. We've kept this crew together through a lot, and we can give you the space.

SO happy that I sprung for home internet--the library I used to walk to for their free wifi is still closed to the public after over 7 months of covid craziness. I'm online multiple times a day but, like Kaul, my creativity level is much lower than normal. Still, if I seem to be lagging on a response, it's likely that I read a GM post, didn't have enough creativity to post immediately, and then forgot to hop back in a day or so later to make my post.

So, Cap'n: If Corliss is slow in posting, feel free to give a gentle reminder and I'll hop to it. I'm still here, but my focus isn't what it should be. I can deal with a slowdown here if needed; I'm seeing slowdowns in all my other games on these forums.

I think we're all a little distracted by real life at the moment. I'm sure we'll re-engage soon. This motley crew has always pulled together after lulls in activity and I'm sure we'll do so again.

Any thoughts about converting the characters to 5E while we collect ourselves and moving forward with that? Anybody else interested? I'll certainly stay with Pathfinder, especially in our version, but it seems that 5E might capture the spirit of limited power that we all signed up for without having to house rule things.

Laughing. I promise my next game will be 5e, Dingus. I think character conversions would be a big ask atm. and some classes don't have a 5e analogue like oracle. Also, a lot of work converting monsters. PF bestiary runs MUCH deeper than what 5e has put out so far.

Though I bought the 5E core rulebooks when they came out in 2014, I'd never given them more than a passing glance...until this lovely pandemic thing gave me a bit more free time. I still haven't actually played in a 5E game, but I've recently bought a slew of books. Seeing Waterdeep, Saltmarsh, and some other old locales (the Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury foremost among them) has given me a warm case of nostalgia for the good old days before covid death tolls, murder hornets, and about three dozen storms per hurricane season. I'm still learning 5E, but would be interested in giving it a run at some point.

Ran across this, Dibbs. I thought you might appreciate it if you hadn't already seen it. Minis out of control

Laughing. I promise my next game will be 5e, Dingus. I think character conversions would be a big ask atm. and some classes don't have a 5e analogue like oracle. Also, a lot of work converting monsters. PF bestiary runs MUCH deeper than what 5e has put out so far.

I'll be waiting :-)

Also, Check out Kobold Press's Monster offerings. They have three thick volumes which I often take advantage of. Tome of Beasts 1, Tome of Beasts 2, and Creature Codex.

Corliss opts to take second shift to ensure there's a capable healer available on each watch.

You're going to need to take both watches if you want to ensure that matey ;)

Corliss wrote:

Corliss opts to take second shift to ensure there's a capable healer available on each watch.

You're going to need to take both watches if you want to ensure that matey ;)

Heh. Corliss's healing ability has taken some pretty big hits recently. It's like Besmara (or some other higher power) expects something more out of him.

Sad to say, I'm not sure when Kaul will be able to rejoin. I'm torn bn boting him a bit or having him disappear into some mystery over the interim. Any thoughts?

Let's have him disappear into a mystery? Puts a bit less of a load on yerself Capn.

Hi Gang, apologies on the low profile - been highly busy with work and prepping for my yearly sojourn to Dubai for the festives (travel now involves far more working parts and monitoring of travel zones etc here in Bonnie Scotland).

Throw into the mix me turning 49+1 yesterday I've just not had time to try and recover my mojo.

Best idea would be to have Kauly go off on his own tangent for a while. I'm hopeful that the New Year will bring new sense of purpose and kick start my creativeness again.

Appreciate the patience and understanding one and all. Will check in afore the festives to wish ye all well :)

Happy Birthday, Kaul! Enjoy those last three years before you officially turn "Old" (at least by D&D/Pathfinder standards).

Happy holidays to all (before I forget), and I hope Kaul (and everyone, honestly) can regain their RPing mojo with the new year.

Happy Birthday and welcome to the club, mate. I turned the big 5-0 this year as well.

Sounds good. I have some ideas. Stay well and hope we have you back sooner rather than later in 2021.

Heh. Scran and I are over in the old folk's home compared to you lot. Kids these days.

Only fair the scraggly half-man's only bringing up the 40 next year ;)

I'm evoking a technicality. Since I couldn't have my 60th Birthday Celebration due to COVID, I haven't had that BD yet... So Still 59 at the moment :-)

I'm evoking a technicality. Since I couldn't have my 60th Birthday Celebration due to COVID, I haven't had that BD yet... So Still 59 at the moment :-)

Looks like Dingus be our elder statesman! I hit that speed limit that Sammy Hagar couldn't stand back in the summer.

Not quite. My 60th was pre-COVID, so I can't take advantage of Dingus' technicality.

On a more serious note, I'm not sure how reliable I'll be over the next several days. My mom tested positive for COVID last week, and although she's still mostly asymptomatic for it (no fever), she had a blood pressure and oxygen saturation crash today. It may be COVID, it may be her vascular dementia finally catching up with her (mean survival time from onset is five years, and she's a bit into her seventh year), I don't know. Good wishes will not be taken amiss.

Much good wishes are provided Jimmer - take the time for you and yours as you can.

Very sorry to hear it, Jim. Best wishes!

Aye, my thoughts and prayers are with you both.

She passed in her sleep last night. I may be a little spotty (well, spottier than usual) for a while.

My condolences, JW. You know our thoughts are with you and your family.

Condolences from downunder as well Jim.

Sorry for your loss, Jim. Vascular dementia's what took my dad as well.

My condolences and thoughts to you and yours Jimmer.

Condolences from FL. Never an easy thing... :-(

Apologies for persona incognito - was an epic last couple of weeks of work right up to Christmas with a big contract being negotiated, etc. Didn't have the mental space to do much outside of work and holiday prep. Back online now.

Merry of the Christmas and Happy of the impending New Year to one and all.

Hey, no apologies now. 2020 has been s&@*. Wishing the better for everyone in '21.