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Last night I put a few cardamom pods in with the rice while it was cooking in the rice maker. Gave it a nice flavor. Not too strong, just a hint of interest.
Tonight is some salmon fillets. Going to salt them, lightly dust with paprika, cumin, and some black pepper then bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes. Probably have lime-cilantro rice as a side.
Aaaand two players had to cancel so I've got my Sunday free. Not sure what I'll do. Try not to squander it. Hope nobody out there vanished into the Lost Hour last night.
"No, seriously, stop making up vapid motivational quotes on the internet and then attributing them to me. I mean it. It's annoying as hell." -Albert Einstein "What he said." -Gandhi "I no longer get annoyed but yeah, ditto." -Buddha
Ooo! That sounds like fun!
minor kvetchingI've been in similar situations. Do you feel like, as the GM, you have an authority to handle these sort of social interactions, or are you wanting to keep the First Rule of D&D to just story and rule stuff? It really depends on the situation and issue. more kvetching/analysis: In this case, I think the first effective tactic is to let the group resolve it amongst themselves.
I brought it up in the online discussion during the week because I have found that if *I* am confused about something or have misunderstood what is going on, I might not be the only one. When I requested clarification, the guy got a little defensive and mansplainy. Since not everyone has the extra bandwidth during the week for extensive Discord discussions, I stopped there and suggested we discuss it on Sunday as a group, so everyone could weigh in. In other cases I've run into, I've been fine exerting GM authority. For instance, I had a player in the recent past who was TERRIBLE about interrupting me. Like, I once counted an entire hour of play in which I was not allowed to finish a sentence. It was destroying the table and the dynamics of play because I was spending 90% of my time dealing with one person. In that case, I felt like it was appropriate to write up a list of behavioral guidelines for the table, since this person's behavior was causing gameplay issues and none of the other players felt like they could say anything about it. In this situation, if the players solve this issue or are ok with it (e.g., ignoring the guy when he orders them to do things, or, once we are clear how their treasury system works, deciding they don't want to do it that way) then it's fine. I also think that this group, unlike several in my past, are very smart, very capable, very confident people. A lot of the game-wrecking behavior I've seen in the past happened because the individual doing the wrecking just steam-rolled over people and the other players were assuming the GM would handle it. This group seems like they each know what they want and won't take mansplaining to or being told how to run their characters. What I'm really trying to avoid is weighing in too early. I can see the potential problems and I *hate* at-the-table conflict because it just wastes game time. So my instinct (which experience has taught me isn't correct) is to jump in and put a stop to it. But I think it may be better to see how everyone else feels before speaking/acting on their behalf.
Enjoy the show, Cal! Woooo! Rock on! More house stuff Saturday, followed by Rise of the Runelords on Sunday. minor kvetching: Things got a little crunchy in online discussion during the week because the player who volunteered to keep the loot list didn't fully explain HOW he was dividing everything up and I think people got confused. His quick version was "It's like a fishing company where we all have a share and there's one party share" and I think people thought that every time there was a loot sale, the cash would be divided 6 ways. His version instead is dividing the total party assets for the entirety of the campaign and that's everyone's share. Which, has issues, not the least of which being no one knows how much cash their character actually has access to in order to buy things for themselves.
So we'll have to hash that out--I'm not a fan of what he's suggesting (complete collective ownership of everything the party finds for the whole campaign), but if the players are fine with it, I'll let it go. I'm suspecting though that at least a couple of them may chafe at having to ask permission before buying stuff for their characters. Plus, setting up total collective ownership is kind of... oof... from a story perspective. "We are the Fellowship of the Ring! Each of us has a 1/9th share of Narsil! And also that funny magic ring Frodo's uncle gave him! We can cash all that out when we dissolve the fellowship and each get a share!" I don't think the player is badly intentioned, but it's bringing up some issues from a past player who very much WAS badly intentioned and would volunteer to keep the loot list as a way of punishing/rewarding other players for playing the way he thought they should. "I'm keeping the spreadsheet so you get that item and that's just how it is." It doesn't help that this new guy is one of those guys who sees things clearly in his head and doesn't understand why everyone doesn't already think that way. Multiple times he's said things like "Let's run the session starting this way..." or "Well all our characters would..." or "Don't do that, it never works in Pathfinder..." when in the first case, he's GMing from the player's seat, in the second case, he's speaking for everyone without asking anyone what they think, and in the third case he's both telling another player how to run their character and just flat out wrong based on my experience (if one says "never" and someone else has seen a thing work pretty much 90% of the time of the past decade...) It's only been 4 sessions and I suspect I'm just over-sensitive because of a few bad players in the past. My strategy for the moment is to let the other players weigh in and take care of it within the group--only getting involved when it's directly affecting my effort to GM. Trying to let it go. But also not ignore something that's bugging me for too long. Last time I did that I really burned out and ended up not gaming for a year because the thought was just too exhausting. This shit should be fun, dammit!
Speaking of hives... I'm breaking out because today someone kept repeatedly using 'solution' as a verb and 'solutioning' as a gerund. Because... 'solve' doesn't exist? FAILED SAVE! So itchy...
I made Scotch broth today Organic, free-range Scots, I presume?
Sleepy owl found resting among items on a New York antique store shelf Meanwhile, somewhere in the Bronx, a little orphan living under the stairs will never know he's been admitted to Hogwarts...
I gave up on books this year. Instead, I installed an app that provides a steady and addictive stream of depressing and alarming stories from Dwarvish current events. It's not good for my mental health, but I can't stop Khazad-dum scrolling.
Huzzah!
Today is a sitting in the sunshine kind of day, since it's warm enough to do so after many months. Rise of the Runelords session 4 tomorrow. The plot is starting to reveal itself nicely on the campaign... they're beginning to realize there is a great deal more going on than even their paranoid speculation has thus far suggested... muhahahaha!
"Please click every picture of a bicycle."
*drools; shorts out keyboard* That sounds amazing.
Last night was salmon & roasted broccoli with rice. I cut the broccoli up into ~1 inch pieces, toss it with salt and sesame oil and then put on a baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees. I start the rice in the magical rice cooker I got at Target for $25 that somehow always knows exactly how long to cook rice. After ~20 minutes I take the salmon, sprinkle with salt, cilatro add a squirt of lime juice, and put it on the same baking sheet as the broccoli (I like my broccoli super crispy--depending on the oven and personal preference, you might have to play around with roasting times). 10ish minutes later, the salmon is done. Right before serving the rice, I stirred in some grated parmesan and salted, roasted pumpkin seeds. I like how that makes the rice more interesting.
Packing up my stuff to go GM. Realize I'm absently humming a jaunty tune. It takes me a minute identify it. Pray for my players.
"There remains one hope of salvation, one way to good health: that the entire work of the mind be started over again; and from the very start the mind should not be left to itself, but be constantly controlled; and the business done (if I may put it this way) by machines." -Francis Bacon
I don't know how you feel about sweet potatoes. I generally don't much care for them (and have been known to throw around phrases like 'abomination unto the Lord' when I see a sweet potato pie mixed in with pumpkin pie in the grocery store). However, I have recently found that dicing them into small cubes, tossing with olive oil, salt, pepper, and diced jalapenos and then roasting them at 450 till just starting to blacken is pretty good. Sprinkle with feta cheese at the end for an extra bit of interest.
Friday is sushi date night with my wife. Saturday is probably a bunch of chores and, if I'm lucky, a solid nap. Sunday is session 3 of Rise of the Runelords. Shit's getting real now. Up till this point they've been pwning goblins. They're about to hit the first real dungeon. Hopefully no PCs will die. Or players either. The latter is a real logistical nightmare... *evil GM laugh*
** spoiler omitted ** RotRL: I made his manservant a named NPC (the book glancingly mentions 'servants' but I expanded that). Jessup too was present at the boar hunt, etc. They might begin to suspect him instead of Aldern... even thinking, as your group did, that Aldern has been somehow kidnapped or strong-armed into the note-writing. One of my long-time players in particular has a well-earned sense of paranoia about seemingly innocuous throw-away named NPCs. I should be able to harness that. *cackles*
You know, people might misunderstand, you chanting "horse" on a thread about what's for lunch... ...or, maybe they aren't misunderstanding. No judgment. *silently judges*
Here too but it was amazing. Leftover barbacoa on homemade sourdough with an avocado and some balsamic glaze. *Homer drool*
Khee khee khee... the Rise of the Runelords session 2 went very well. In particular: Rise of the Runelords: There's a minor noble NPC named Aldern Foxglove. The PC witch healed him from negative HP during the initial goblin attack and he's been very flirtatious/attentive ever since. I've managed to play it so the players think of him as a combo 'imprinted baby duck with a crush' and 'noble sugar daddy for the party'. What they do not know, of course, is...
Between this session (the last time they'll see Aldern before he leaves town) and the second chapter of the AP, Aldern will become The Skinsaw Man, an undead serial killer who will commit a number of horrific murders before the PCs find him. I cannot WAIT for that big reveal. My hope is they will have mostly forgotten Aldern by then, except as a recurring party joke about the witch's sugar daddy...
And that reminds me of Garfield Minus Garfield.
The Erylium fight (I was a player in this as well before deciding to run it starting shortly) has a (well-deserved) reputation as being frustrating. Not challenging, not TPK, just... hours of ineffectual actions on everyone's part. So... using the wealth of Pathfinder material created since this AP anniversary edition dropped, I've recreated the encounter. Erylium is now a wrathspawn who was a servant to Xaliasa (the Scribbler post-death). As long as wrathspawn are within a mile of their birthing minor runewell, they are functionally immortal. She has been down there a long time. The shock of Thassilon's destruction and her master's death awoke psychic powers within the lone (she thinks) survivor. I rebuilt her as a spiritualist, whose anger focused phantom is a psychic echo of The Scribbler. That teases the existence of the Scribbler far in advance of Book Five (I like a long foreshadow). I'll have to rewrite Tsuto's handout but other than that, it's not a big change and roughly the same level of difficulty without the frustration of trying to chase down a flying, regenerating, damage-reducing, invisible foe at 2nd level. Spoiler: Erylium
Wrathspawn spiritualist 3 (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 246, Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 72)
**** Phantom Echo of Xaliasa Phantom (Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures)
And if you don't cull, come summer the fornicating teen population will explode. Then many of them will over-graze and starve in the fall.
Oh, and of course, it being Friday the 13th, gonna head on down to the ole lake to murder some fornicating teens. A cherished holiday, with elegant traditions...
Got session 2 of Rise of the Runelords on Sunday. Session 1 went great--I invented a bunch of mini-games to introduce some of the pertinent NPCs and they all went over well. The party is starting to gel, which is cool given that none of them have played together. It's really nice when there's a whole group that understands table dynamics and that Pathfinder is a team game. Plus, I got to sing the Goblin War Song, which is always a treat.
45 degrees in the office?! Did you burn through your Christmas extra piece of coal already? Serves you right then. Bah humbug!
If you make a dad joke but you're not a dad, that's a faux pa.
The Tiger Population Doubled in India in Just Ten Years That's grrrrrreat!
I concede both points and withdraw my pedantic objection.
Thanks, guys. I'm currently angry, sore, and high as hell on pain meds. I've had it with gravity. If I run into that Newton kid there's gonna be more than an apple bouncing off his head.
Im Kampf zwischen Dir und der Welt, sekondiere der Welt. In the struggle between yourself and the world, back the world. -Franz Kafka
Unless your species is one of them there 'hive minds' don't be using the phrase 'group selfie'.One might argue that the definition of a 'selfie' is that you take it yourself of yourself with a handheld device, not that it must contain only yourself as a singular subject. So 'group selfie' is merely a convenient way of saying that one 'took a picture of oneself with a handheld device with onself as subject + (other subjects)'. One might... except the British have thoughtfully coined the phrase "ussie" to refer to that exact situation. There WAS a solution, people chose not to use it. WILL SAVE FAILED!
I'm on a news boycott until someone tells me a journalist has said: "Tragic news tonight as a local man unknowingly kills his father, has sex with his mother, finds out about it, and pokes out his own eyes." Or some variant thereupon. Tragic != sad, horrible, disastrous, deadly...
With only three hours before showtime, I had to call off my game. My long distance players were already on their way here. I took a really hard fall and jacked up my back and my right hip socket makes a weird popping sensation when I try to walk...limp. Cindy (my ex) is on her way here and we might visit the ER. It's a lovely day for it. GAH! Goddamn physics! Sorry to hear it, Cal. That suuuuuucccckkks.
Unless your species is one of them there 'hive minds' don't be using the phrase 'group selfie'.
Looks like we're *finally* starting our Rise of the Runelords campaign this Sunday. Woot! And there's Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl to watch. Go Pats, etc. and so forth. We even have a little sunshine in the forecast, which is sorely needed. Too many dark winter days turn me into a morlock.
On this day in 1985 the mayors of Rome and Carthage signed a peace treaty officially ending the Third Punic War. (As an aside, by weird chance of life coincidence, I was in Carthage at the time... so when my friends start complaining about being old I tell them: "Pfft. Shut it! I was there when the Punic Wars ended, you juvenis flagellatorlutjanus!")
*Takes bow. Nods head, smiling with gratitude. Begs forgiveness from fellow pedants.* *fails Will save* NEVER!
I've done it with black beans. The one thing I recommend (assuming you're using the can) is to make sure they're well-rinsed and dried off from the canned bean juice--otherwise the excess can make the crispy tortilla a little floppy. Or worse (speaking from personal experience) you pick one up and the middle collapses due to structural weakness, dumping hot beans and cheese everywhere. Oh, and depending on your requirements on salt intake, I also sprinkle kosher or coarse salt on top of the cheese prior to putting them back in the oven.
For the hagfish DC I used the following math: -28 names on the wall in the past 10 years.
If a typical commoner has a Fort save of +0 and they have a 5% chance of success, that's a 1/20 or a nat 20 on a Fort save not to spew the tankard contents. Fort DC = 20.
I watch a lot of sports. In the past year, the new grating sportscaster meme is calling something good in a NON-BASEBALL sport a 'home run'. No. He did not hit a home run. He threw a football well and the other guy caught it well. No, she did not hit a home run. She vaulted the HELL out of that vault and stuck the landing. And if a tennis player hits a home run, they're definitely doing it wrong. Seriously, people. Are you so bereft of metaphors?!
The Erylium fight (I was a player in this as well before deciding to run it starting shortly) has a (well-deserved) reputation as being frustrating. Not challenging, not TPK, just... hours of ineffectual actions on everyone's part. So... using the wealth of Pathfinder material created since this AP anniversary edition dropped, I've recreated the encounter. Erylium is now a wrathspawn who was a servant to Xaliasa (the Scribbler post-death). As long as wrathspawn are within a mile of their birthing minor runewell, they are functionally immortal. She has been down there a long time. The shock of Thassilon's destruction and her master's death awoke psychic powers within the lone (she thinks) survivor. I rebuilt her as a spiritualist, whose anger focused phantom is a psychic echo of The Scribbler. That teases the existence of the Scribbler far in advance of Book Five (I like a long foreshadow). I'll have to rewrite Tsuto's handout but other than that, it's not a big change and roughly the same level of difficulty without the frustration of trying to chase down a flying, regenerating, damage-reducing, invisible foe at 2nd level.
And the phantom:
Also, if you are using Hero Lab, do not put the Sihedron Medallion available under Magic Items on your players' character sheets - the description includes ALL of the medallion's abilities and characteristics, including that it allows Karzoug to scary on the wearer. Use a custom item instead. Good catch! Also, I'm not going to give the players the actual item name, so they won't look it up on Archives of Nethys (same spoiler problem). I'll just call this one 'Nualia's Medallion' and let it go at that. Hopefully they'll refrain from digging too deeply online.
Yay! Sleestaks! It's about the same here and we have a dumping of snow coming Saturday. High winds. Not sure what that means for trying to start Rise of the Runelords on Sunday, but I do not trust to hope. It has forsaken these lands. Goddamn Fimbulwinter.
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