Brayden, I know you said she is confronting her feelings about all these life events, but such confrontations are never easy... Having been through and still going through depression, I cannot recommend enough the help of a psychologist or psychiatrist to talk out her feelings with. Sometimes family or self-therapy just isn't enough. If your health insurance won't cover it, many communities have a free clinic with counseling services. Anyway - as Shi said... prayers for you and yours in this difficult time.
As for a reading list, without knowing what types of things she likes to read, I'm at a loss as to what to recommend. I'd be happy to make suggestions if I knew what she liked - fiction (and type) or non-fiction (and type)?
There are also some good books that are considered self-help for depression if you think something like that might interest her (or you) - (google 'helpful reading in times of depression').
She goes to a weekly therapist, she started about a month ago, and we talk things over quite a bit both before and after her sessions, at her comfort. She is on anti-depressants as well, and has been since her early teenage years.
She is a wonderful person and it is hard to see her go through this, but it is also necessary for her to find happiness in herself. It is good to see her make this struggle, and I think she will be the better for it. We just want to make sure that re doing everything that we can to help it be positive.
I went through a life altering change about a decade ago, and I understand how hard it is. I had to try to find happiness in much the same way she is now, so I have both sympathy and empathy for her process. Thanks for the concern. I will keep you all posted.
brayden philip AT gmail if any of you facebook and want to add me in the short term, it would be nice to keep in touch with you, or I will see you sporadically on the boards. :)
Alright, so, putting out an open call to a few games I'm in for a game I'm running (have been running for a bit now). One of the players is working on a project and doesn't have a ton of free time right now, so we're a bit stalled ATM. And they've been down a man for a while so I figure it's a good time to introduce a couple of new players.
So, short details, it's basically a "guided sandbox" Thieves' Guild type campaign. It takes place in essentially unaltered Golarion, except the game itself is in a completely made up city (Myrial, city-state TECHNICALLY ruled by Cheliax but in reality left pretty much unchecked).
Generally how it goes is I provide a number of jobs to choose from and you can pick all, some, or none of them (no job is mandatory). In addition, you pretty much have free reign over what you want to do in the city. Want to steal from a rich merchant? You're welcome to try. Take down that rival party that's been a pain in your ass? Go for it (though you'll have to wait until another one is ballsy enough to try right now...).
Current "story arc" is that after the party's more recent exploits, a mercenary peacekeeping company (the Obsidian Guard) is cracking down, hard.
Obviously, the campaign's subject matter (for those familiar with the Elder Scrolls series, particularly oblivion and Skyrim, the initial concept was a combo of the Thieves Guild from Skyrim, and the Dark Brotherhood from both) implies that Good aligned characters will probably not fit well. Neutral is fine, and so is Evil, though the current party make-up somewhat discourages Chaotic Evil characters (the group is mostly Neutral with Evil tendencies rather than straight up evil, but they ARE focused on profit), but a well written one could fit just fine.
A couple of caveats that may or may not turn people off:
1.) I am not an especially experienced DM. I've run a few games, but all have been Adventure Paths besides this one. I'm pretty much flying by the seat of my pants right now, making things up as I go along. This is both good and bad. It lets me react to what you're doing on the fly, but it also makes it somewhat hard to keep track of which potential plot threads people have picked up and which have been left un-nibbled. If I were more experienced this would be less of an issue, but I'm not. So far hasn't hampered anything too badly, I just need a nudge from the players every once in a while to remind me of something I mentioned a while back that they want to pick up, but it's a consideration.
2.) This game was partially born as a testing ground for "Freeform Class Selection". I basically broke down every class ability in the game into a point buy (barring Prestige Classes, and with more of a guideline for archetypes since there's so many), including BaB, Saves, Skills Per Level, and Proficiencies. You would be using this system, so it would require you to basically forget a lot of things you know about charop in order to use it. It has some flaws, it doesn't work perfectly, but most people who've fiddled with it has said they like how it works. Allows for a lot of flexibility, sometimes in a broken sense, but I'm posting in these particular games because I trust people to keep it reasonable and at least ask before jumping on anything majorly broken.
All that said, if you want to check it out, the game is here.
Character creation guidelines are as follows:
-25 Point buy
-Character level 5th
-Wealth by level for level 5*
-Utilizes Freeform Class Selection
*Pertinent houserule to the above, the Big 4 items (Cloaks of Resistance, Stat Boosting belts/headbands, Rings or Protection, and Amulets of Natural Armor are NOT ALLOWED.
n exchange, players will receive +2 to any stat of their choice, with a further +1 to any two DIFFERENT stats of their choice every 4 levels. They will also receive a +2 untyped bonus to AC at 1st level, +1 every 3rd level thereafter, and +2 at 20th (culminating in a total of +10 AC), and a +1 bonus to saves at 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter (culminating in a +5 bonus to saves at 20th level).
Reasoning: These items/bonuses are expected by the game, but usually lead to bland/boring "loadouts" for characters. I want to encouraging picking items because they're INTERESTING and give people new OPTIONS, not just on the merit that if you don't have X, Y, and Z, you're likely to get stomped.
Think I've rambled on long enough. PM me or post here if you're interested.
Happy Father's Day to any dads out there.
Hi friends, thought I'd check in and give you an update. Katelyn is doing very, very well. She is really clicking with her therapist and working through a lot of things. I have gone with her (at their request) and have seen a lot of really good changes happening in her life. I think that we are really turning the corner and can be happy.
Hopefully life finds you all well too.
Brayden
So good to hear things are going well for Katelyn, Brayden. Here's to continued improvement. Stay well.
Glad to hear it. =)
Her dad is getting married AUG 9th. I'm holding out until then to start back up, but if we don't have any more scares after that, I see no reason we can't get the band back together and do this right after that. :)
Sounds good to me, and congratulations to your wife's dad.
sounds good to me, too... hope all goes well for you and yours til then, and after.