Day in the Life of an Idiot

 Because I'm NOT going to go into it with my role-playing group, I'm going to take a moment to rant here.

First off, if you've never heard of safety tools in TTRPGs, there is a really lovely FREE resource here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/288535/consent-in-gaming. The booklet is short, but really valuable and it comes with a free consent form that's PDF formfillable. 

I know that a lot of people take issue with the idea that consent and saftey have become "codified" in RPGs. I'm here to tell you that if you actually read the free resource I direct you to, you will see that 1) they are not, and 2) they were never intended to be. Safety is a thing that needs to be flexible, individual, and organic--as well as generally part of the culture of a table--to function as intended. If your GM has built in good communication and trust from the start, it's absoluely NOT REQUIRED that every table use them. But, like if you do need them, it's important to actually UNDERSTAND the point of how and why and what best practices look like. An open table is great, but --

There also needs to be space for anonimity.

One of my groups is currently sharing a consent form on an Excel spreedsheet. Seems like a decent solution, in some ways, so that everyone's answer can be kept all together, right? Well, I mean, yes, if it's all just performative and provided there isn't anything truly sensitive that someone might not actually want the entire group to know.

Like, I think most of my friend group knows WHY I do not want storylines that involve stillbirth or endangered pregnancies, but I also sometimes am not feeling up to reliving my loss to explain to people who don't. When you have a private form, there is usually space for the reply to include specific information about what exactly triggers you and what doesn't in a way that doesn't have to involve the entire table being involved, if you don't want that. Like, sometimes I will still cry when I talk about Ella? And, maybe I'm at a new table where I'd rather not have someone's first impression of me be as a bawling mess... 

But even on a shared form, if I wanted to actually give the GM more detail, it would have to be written as "Lyda would like to not have this paricular scenario for these reasons." Or, I just have to take a risk that the GM understands my specific triggers, which, honestly, still sometimes includes someone saying "stat!" in an emergency medical situation EVEN OUT OF THE CONTEXT OF A PREGNANCY. 

Because that's how Shawn and I first learned that Ella was dead.

But, there's no space to have a private conversation where I could spell out some of my specific needs on a form shared with everyone.

Also, a lot of consent forms are designed (including the one that is currently being shared) to include things that you would enthusiastically consent to. I went ahead and checked the things I actually enjoy seeing played out in fiction, but... like, these are ALSO the sorts of things I would like to be able to explain privately. Because just writing "Slavery, Yay!" or "Racism, Yay!" kind of actually feels gross out of context, when what I mean is "in the context of ancient Rome and fantasy settings therein" or "like between elves and orcs."

But, let's be honest. 

I'm not at all surprised to discover a deep misunderstanding how to actually USE safety tools from this particular individual. 

We've played this game for seven years and this is our first introduction to Lines and Veils/Consent at all. Moreover, I fully expect this particular GM to use this consent form as a weapon, as in "You didn't mark it! You are not allowed to feel differently in a different context or at a later date!!"

He has already rules-lawyered my use of an X-Card to express a need to back away from something. He insisted to me both in public (in an email) and in a private message that I misused X-Card and Lines and Veils is the MORE CORRECT term.  Thanks for taking the time to scold my use of language when what I am expressing is "ouch," but whatever. That already made it perfectly clear to me that  if I don't use the right term my feelings are not valid and will not be addressed. 

But, I understand that empathy is a sin now.

What else should I even expect of people in a world like this?

 But the good news is that Shawn's recovery is proceeding apace. 

On Wednesday, she had her two week check-in with Dr. Herseth, the knee surgeon. Just even GETTING to these appointments is kind of its own challenge. Shawn officially graduated to a cane on Monday (according to her physical therapist), so that made some of our manuevering a LITTLE easier. But, there's just a lot of rigamarole to do to get her, her cane, and the walker (which we took in case she felt unsteady) into the car and then to get her, her cane, etc., deposited at the front door of the clinic. I still have to park, get the ticket, etc., and get to her.... and I swear to god that I walk ten steps to her one. 

Regardless, we had a good appointment. We were first seen by Dr. Herseth's assistant, Ryan. Ryan removed the bandage that Shawn's been wearing since the surgery (impregnated with SILVER to repell werewolves!) This was the first time we got a good look at her scar. We both remarked at how neat the stitches were. Ryan perked up and said, "Oh, be sure to tell Dr. Herseth that." I asked, "Why? Does he not get a lot of compliments?" Ryan smirked and said, "No. He doesn't do the closing. I do!"

Ryan checked Shawn ability to straighten her leg (she was close to 1 or 2 degrees, with 0 being perfectly straight). This was up even from Monday, when the physical therapist officially measured her at 4. Then he checked her ability to bend her knee. She was at 128 degrees.  Later, when the doctor redid these tests he, being very Minnesotan, raised his eyebrows, paused, and then drawled, "Well. I was going to tell you that you should be working to make that 90 degrees, but I guess you're ready for more advanced goals." <--for my out-of-state readers: THIS is a Minnesotan doctor losing his ABSOLUTE SH*T over how good Shawn is doing, just to be clear.

On Monday, the physical therapist apparently said to Shawn, "I wouldn't go posting your flex of 128 degrees on social media... unless you want your car keyed."

Dr. Herseth said her knee looked like it was more like it was in week three or even four, not two. 

This would be cause for celebration, but Shawn is having really intense nerve pain. Dr. Herseth's only response was, "Yep. That's going to happen. It will get better." He also agreed that the only real solution for it at the moment was continued (if judicious) use of oxycodone. Shawn very much would like to get off the oxy, but, on the other hand, because of all of her other medications, she really can't take very many other drugs for pain.  She is keeping very careful track of when and how much she takes, however. I don't think she's a big risk for addiction. 

For myself, I've been very slowly getting back to normal. Mason came home on Monday. He's technically in the middle of finals week, but he only has papers due (no tests), so he decided to come home early for the holidays to help out.

With Mason around, I felt comfortable leaving Shawn last night to go to Wyrdsmiths. We are trying to meet in-person again (with limited success.) Even though a number of people insisted that in-person meetings were THE BEST and they absolutely hated how isolated they continued to feel on Zoom... we're lucky to get half the group to even show up when we host in-person. I feel pretty f*cking vindicated that I insisted that we keep our second meeting of the month on Zoom because sometimes that's the only one everyone shows up to. I mean, I get it? I am very aware that it is a pain in the butt to leave the comfort of your own home, in the dark, on a Thursday night, in the middle of winter, drive the car halfway across town, sit around for several hours and then have drive home, in the dark, in the winter. THIS WAS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO CHANGE IN THE FIRST PLACE. I knew we'd have attrition! Yet, even though I was fully against returning in-person, I have dragged my sorry a$$ to each and every one of these in-person meetings. I find it deeply ironic that the people who insisted it was so f-ing necessary for their mental health that we do this, can't seem to show up to a single one. 

/rant

Moving on.

Tomorrow, I have not one, but two gaming sessions planned. Saturday morning, I'm gathering the Reprised Drunk Girls* for my attempt at a manor house mystery D&D session. We'll see how that goes. As noted often, I'm a novice GM and a murder mystery can be kind of complex. Though really, if my plans fail and the party quickly sees through what I think are oh-so-clever clues, the whole thing just becomes whack-a-mole and we roll for initiative, as it were. Currently, I am MOSTLY prepared. The manor house and all its clues are set (that part has been done for months), but there are still a couple of out-building maps that don't yet have potential monsters. And with this crew? I need to be prepared in case they just decide to leave the main building and wander the grounds.

Plus, I had to add an oubliette once they decided to capture the Green Knight instead of killing him. I'd complain, but honestly that's the part of GMing that I like the best. 

Then, at 7pm on Saturday, I will be a player in our ongoing Star Trek campaign. My flighty former-Chief Science Officer has accepted a promotion to XO and, frankly, I am uncertain if he is actually up to the shift to command staff. I mean, technically as Chief Science Officer he was always part of the senior staff, but XO is a whole new ballgame for Ro. I, personally, have been prepping for this by watching WWII submarine movies and practicing shouting things like "all hands on deck!" "man overboard!" and "what's the scuttlebutt?!" I'm pretty sure that's also about as much as my character knows about how to lead a starship crew, so WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

 I talk too much as a GM is what I'm learning. 

Because one of our players had to miss, we actually recorded the session. I watched a bit of it to make sure it was working properly. Since I'm still very much new at running games, I thought it was important, too, just to see how cringe I might be. Did I give people time to make decisions? Did I talk over anyone? Did I finish every sentence I started?

I can do better in all of the above categories and one other... probably more important one.

As I was telling a friend this morning in an email, the thing is, Shawn will tell you that if I have a really cool present planned for a birthday or whatever, my desire to spoil it is LEGION. There are so many times when I've nearly said, "Just take it now!!" when the present arrives, because I am so excited to see her reaction to it.

Unfortunately, I'm kind of similar as a game master. I understand that it is uncool to lead your players by the nose, but it's really hard to not want to put up a giant metaphorical ("theater of the mind!") neon sign up that says ADVENTURE BE HERE.

Of course, my players got their revenge, as it were. I have, like all newbie GMs so much stuff planned in the immediate vacinity, and my players are, instead, at the literal tran station LEAVING ALL MY PLANNED STUFF BEHIND.

Classic!

Ah well. Even if the game wasn't riop-roaring fun for everyone, it was a good distraction, I think? I heard from at least one player who had fun and was impressed with my audio-visual props. I'm still deeply unhappy with how some of the actual mechanics of TSL work in-game--fighting is such a mess--but the players are settling into their characters and the story has begun to unfold. 

Have you managed anything that feeds the spirit yet? Are you picking up any new hobbies in order to cope?

What's funny is that Shawn has, for reasons known only to herself, decided to learn shorthand. Apparently, this is something she really wanted to learn as a kid, but, of course, ieven already n the late-1970s it was quickly falling out of fashion. So, each of us is doing something that challenges our brains. I'm learning GMing skills; she's learning what is essentially secretarial secret code.

Tonight I have an organizing meeting with Indivisible. So, play last night, fight tonight. Seems like a reasonable balance.

Before I leave behind this subject, I wanted to review myself as a GM and talk a little bit about how the game itself actually played out.

As I noted in the previous entry, I had some really good players. I play regularly with lcohen in our on-going Star Trek campaign and writers tend to be a good bet--and, as it turns out, naomikritzer is also a theatre person. I knew my friend Nick would also be good, since we played role-playing games together after college. The other two were unknowns, but turned out to mesh perfectly with the rest of the merry adventurers, as it were.

I am an inexperienced game master/runner. As much discussed here, I ran a Thirsty Sword Lesbians campaign at ConFABulous last year, and, ramping up to that, I test-played my homebrewed scenario several times with different groups. I ended up running that particular game a half dozen times in total? But, this was my first time running the classic Dungeons & Dragons, which, as you probably know if you are at all familiar, has a LOT of rules. 

Also, this was the first time for me running a game via Zoom.

( Cut for length )

 I'm sitting on my front porch trying to be very quiet so as to not scare away the very light rain that seems to actually be falling from the sky. 

While I'm trying not to make any sudden moves, I thought I should catch you up on my life. First of all, there is a new interview with me up on Salon Futura. https://www.salonfutura.net/2024/09/lyda-morehouse-interview/ which you should feel free to listen to if you are curious about the upcoming re-release of Resurrection Code. There are no spoilers, even though the book is over 20 years old, but we do talk some of what it is about, my influences, and all the standard sorts of things one does in interviews like this. I am inordinately fond of Cheryl Morgan, so I think you should just listen to everything she has up on Salon Futura. 

I also posted another unboxing video on all the various socials. I'm pretty sure unboxing videos are passe, which is why I've done so many of them this year. 

Well, crap. I think I scared the rain away.  It looked possible there for a hot minute. Ah, well. I will keep my sprinkler on, in hopes that I can fool the sky into giving the whole thing a try.  It's been too long. Shawn sent me a whole article about how this is stressing out the trees, that threw me into an existential funk this afternoon. 

The countdown to surgery continues. We are at T-8 days. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with some last minute things Shawn could consider preparing, especially j00j and abracanabra for the clothing-related thoughts. Shawn had been thinking of relying on me for all her dressing needs, but she might be happier with some tools to help her do some for herself. The things you suggested are in the Amazon chart!

I'm also about four days out from running my first stab at "Solidarity: Drunk Girls* in the Bathroom." Earlier today, I was complaining to fellow GM tallgeese about the so-called "module" for this game. BACK IN MY DAY, a Dungeons & Dragons module contained more than vibes. It provided a game runner with literally everything they would need to run the campaign, outside of actual dice (although I'm sure some of them somewhere did come with a baggie of dice!) As enamored as I am of the concept of this game, it will be interesting to see how it functions in practice. The good news is that I have assembled a crack team of players who are ready to focus on roleplay over combat, so maybe none of it will matter as much as I worry it might. Regardless, I have spent a shocking amount of time preparing for any number of possibilities.  Some of you experienced game runners out there might be arching an eyebrow a the amount of time I have devoted to fleshing out a world around the scenario that The Drunk Girl* (lcohen ) and I are creating. Let me tell you a little story about the first time I thought I might try GMing a game....

Cast your mind back to the early 1990s. Cyberpunk was the hot thing and a bunch of different gaming companies were capitalizing on that fact. I somehow missed the popular cyberpunk game, but instead had a copy of GURPS Cyberpunk. GURPS is notorious for a number of reasons, but I wasn't actually all that fussed about the rules. Like, I figured that if I had a basic grasp of how the game went an an active imagination, I should be FINE. Except.... turns out, I, personally, need some processing time. I used to do improv theater, but GMing is actually slightly different. People expect a GM to have a generally cohesive sense of the world. They expect a semblance of a storyline. They llke.... maps. Mostly, I discovered, what players do not want is for their GM to freeze up in abject terror and not have a single thought come into their heads. I ended up doing that last bit more than once. It was BAD. A disaster, even.

Luckily, I was 21 and as I told my friend, entirely made out of ego (which was obviously a large part of the problem, but also what saved me from dying on the spot and then spending the rest of my life hiding in shame.) 

Let's see... other things I've been up to. I finished listening to Someone You Can Build a Nest In (I keep getting the title of this wrong, but this is the correct one.) I have Frankenstein cued up because I think we are doing it as a deep-dive on our cyberpunk podcast. How is Frankenstein cyberpunk? HOW IS IT NOT? Artificial life! Questions of what it means to be human! SCIENCE!

Did I ever tell you all that I actually met a Dr. Frankenstein? She was a dentist. I happened to be standing in line at the vet back in the day (so long ago back in the day that I was still seeing Dr. Holly out in St. Louis Park because we were living in Uptown.) The woman in front of me said, "I'm here for [Fluffy.] It's under Frankenstein," and I laughed and said, "Well, you should really get a PhD so you can be a doctor with a name like that!" and that's when she told me she was, in fact, a doctor--a dentist. We had a very short conversation about her name and what a hassle she must find it, the details of which I no longer remember. I was trying to be polite, but I really wanted to know what it was like to walk around with such a famous name. But I was also aware that her name probably meant she must spend 80% of her time having conversations just like the one she was having with me. 

Like Shawn being 6'1"--it used to be that not a day would go by without someone asking her if she played basketball. Or ask what "the weather was like up there."

It's still looking dark. Should I dare hope?

Eh, I just looked at the extended weather forecast. The short answer is: there is no hope for rain this entire week. In fact the humidity is supposed to drop really low for some reason... 

JFC.

So, do you remember that I told you all that I've been feeling a weird nostalgia for crunchy granola food from the 1970s. Well, Shawn ended up having a huge lunch via a food truck at work today so we agreed we were "yoyo"-ing (you're on your own). So, I decided to make myself the most amazing tempeh parmesan. It's supposed to be like chicken parmesan, only with tempeh. And some of you are screwing up your faces right now in disgust, but you are WRONG. This was delicious! And I am inordinately excited that there are three servings leftover so that I can have this for lunch for the next several days.

hmmm, there are probably far more interesting things to catch you all up on, but that's all that's crossing my mind at the moment. 

I'm currently listening to an audiobook called Flux by Jinwoo Chong. I picked it because I'm running out of books that Goodreads has decided are cyberpunk that I can easily get through my library (or as audiobooks). So, what I did was just put "cyberpunk" into the tags I wanted into the Libby app and asked it to find me some stuff. I'm not sure how well it did.  There is a tiny bit of "wetwear" in this novel (one of the characters was mute, but receives a voice modulator,) but... I don't know, man. Like, the SF is light on the ground. I think I was duped into listening to mainstream fiction.  *grumpy face*

My plan is to listen to the book until the loan period runs out (about five days) on the off chance that it markedly improves. I have another book that just became available, which is not SF, which is Someone You Can Build a Nest in by John Wiswell, who I met, briefly, when he was in town for Fourth Street. This book is getting a lot of good buzz, plus I rather liked John, so I thought I might as well give it a try. So, that one is up next in the queue.

Otherwise, the big thing I'm re-reading right now is the rulebook for Thirsty Sword Lesbians, as it seems that is the campaign that my brand new once-a-month Tuesday night RPG group is going to have me run for them. Due to having run this several times before (including twice as a one shot at ConFABulous), I have homebrewed the f*ck out of the cyberpunk scenario, and so another huge thing I've been doing is writing what amounts to a personal Player's Guide. 

Which, not going to lie, I've been really enjoying. 

I'm a whore for worldbuilding. It's a big part of what I used to do when I was writing a metric ton of Bleach fanfic. (Which, shhh, don't tell, I've also had a yen to write again. This is all, of course, because I have a novel I SHOULD be working on.)

Anyway, how about you? Reading anything interesting or fun right now?

 As you all know (since I swear I talk about it constantly), Shawn is having her knee surgery on Tuesday, October 8. What I had not factored into all of this is that my favorite local con, ConFABulous, runs October 11-13. Shawn is still going to be heavily medicated by the 11th. Also, everyone who talks about this surgery--including Shawn's own surgeon--says that the first week is Hell Week. So I think I was being foolish imagining I can attend this con in any way, much less run two games. 

It kind of breaks my heart, but there will always be next year. 

I has made me more determined to get serious about starting an RPG group of my own. So, I guess: watch this space. I would really love a group of folks that would let me try running mini-campaigns in a bunch of different systems. I even found what looks like a really fun, light way to get started in D&D called Solidarity: Drunk Girls* in Bathrooms.

I also had to let my cousin know that Shawn and I are not going down to St. Louis, MO, later this month for her COSA (Counsel of State Archivists) conference. Things have gotten complicated at Shawn's work, plus see above. Shawn is very paranoid (and I think rightly) about picking up any infections too close to her big surgery. Apparently, if the replacement bone stuff they use gets an infection in it, it can be nearly impossible to get rid of--and sometimes the only solution is to REDO the surgery. No one wants that. Plus, Shawn has planned the timing of this perfectly and if the surgeon calls it off, who knows how far out the next available time is, you know?

It's just tough because it is interfering with a lot of the things I love, including road trips!  

But, all these things aren't nearly as important as Shawn health.  And ConFABulous will be there for me next year. COSA will be somewhere else next year, but we can always just plan a trip to Saint Louis sometime! So, it's not all lost. But it's just such a bummer to have to cancel on people.

 It's been a slow reading week. I don't really have that much to report. I started listening to the audiobook of Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki, which is a collection of short stories. So far I've been enjoying it. 

The other thing I read is my copy of the TTRPG Camp Flying Moose by Alicia Furness because I am planning on running a one-shot of it at ConFABulous (October 11-13, 2024). If you were ever a fan of Lumberjanes the graphic novels, this is the RPG for you. The game seems pretty simple to run, but I did have to re-work the provided character sheet because it had no place to put the stats.... which seems like a kind of major oversight. But, it was easy enough to do. 

Oh, I should also probably mention that the SIXTH episode of Mona Lisa Overdrive dropped today. Kali1ban and I talk about WorldCON a bit as well as the aesthetics of cybperpunk. A LOT of short stories titles get dropped, so if you're looking for a "is this cyberpunk or not?" kind of read, you can check that out. 

Otherwise, I feel like I'm finally starting to recover from WorldCON. I'm starting to catch up on my correspondence, etc. It's weird to feel like this when all I did was attend virtually. 

That's it for me. What about you? Reading or watching or listening anything interesting? 

 This weekend, I blew off some responsibilities in order to take part in Free RPG Day. 

My friend tallgeese alerted me to the fact that there was a big event at Tower Games over in Minneapolis. I noticed on the events page that someone was running a Thirsty Sword Lesbians one-shot. I should probably be sick of TSL since I took my responsibility for running a game at ConFABulous so seriously that I ran not one, but TWO practice sessions. But, two things. First, I was interested to see how someone else might construct a one-shot and, secondly, there's just so many scenarios you can play with this system that it's not like it's ho-hum, same old, same old. 

I had never been to Tower Games before. It's a nifty little store that is super easy to get to (at least for me) because you basically get off 35W right at the exit that used to be "mine" when I lived in Uptown, (36-38th Avenue.) Then it's a short hop down Nicolet and you're there. I was worried about parking, but I got there early enough that I was able to park on the street on the same block as the store, even. Tower Games is set-up like a lot of gaming stores seem to be where there's a front area with all the merchandise and then, once you go through this narrow hallway, it opens up into a backroom that's set-up for gaming. For this event, they had long, skinny tables--sort of like the kind you might find in a bar?--with basically a set of barstools around each. They managed to cram SIX tables into this space, which, I think would normally have otherwise seemed decently spacious, but felt really crowded during the event. At one point, in fact, our GM got kind of overwhelmed by the ambient noise and lost her train of thought!  So, given that I think she's a regular there, I think the place was unusually packed. I did hear someone say when I was coming in that they had NEVER seen this many people at the store at once before.

Our GM, Emily. was wearing a mask and so I asked her if she would be more comfortable if I did. I had brought one with me--like it was literally on my wrist, but I had planned on reading the room and gauge how I felt about it (it wasn't nearly as crowded when I first came in). But, even though she said it was up to me, I followed her lead and put mine on.  What was amazing to me is that once at least one other person had one on, everyone else around the table masked up. Most of us were clearly ready and willing to, which... the cockles of my heart were warmed, let's just say. One of the players clearly felt badly about not having one, so I asked her if she wanted one as I had extra unopened KN-95s in my car. She said yes and so I ran off before the game got underway and gave her one. We might have been the only table that was 100% masked.

But, unlike a lot of other spaces, there were just generally lots of other masks all around the room. I don't always love my fellow nerds, but this was nice.

Our table was also almost entirely women, though we had one brave guy probably my age join us. (I think we were the oldest two players--he might even have only been in his 40s, and I'm 56.) We all chose to play she/her lesbians, only one she/they lesbian, which was my character.

The scenario that Emily had prepared for us was PIRATES! 

I'm not going to go into all the details of the one-shot because I know that can be boring, but I do want to talk about it a little. Emily made the interesting choice of letting us develop our own characters. I go back and forth about this in a one-shot, if only because it can really take away a lot of the gaming time. In one of my test runs, in fact, it took and hour and a half of the three hours we had blocked off to play.  But, some people are, in fact, there to see how the game WORKS. Like, they signed up for this one-shot because they want a quick intro to the mechanics of the game. Part of that is developing characters and choosing to have players make their own on the spot does give the GM a chance to familiarize players with their playbooks/character sheets--which has to get done, even if you use pre-generated characters. So, this is a big part of why I feel like both choices are valid. I just tend, myself, to favor those who want to get to the Thirsty and the Sword part of playing Thirsty Sword Lesbians. 

I chose a playbook that I actually find LEAST attractive as GM in part because I wanted to explore this character type/get to know it better by playing it. Thirsty Sword Lesbians had a ton of different playbooks you can choose from a lot of which sort of/kind of map to D&D character types. Like, there is a Trickster playbook which is sort of like a rogue (though arguments could be made that Scoundrel better maps to rogue, though maybe that person is more like a bard...) and a Beast that is sort of like a barbarian, etc., etc. There are two magic-user types, the wizard analog, which is Spooky Witch and the druid analog, Nature Witch. I picked Nature Witch because, speaking of mechanics, I find some of the things about that playbook to be kind of... not dumb, that's unfair. But, as a GM, I find them hard to figure out how to work into a scenario so that players who do want to be this type of person can DO those things. Like, there's a very clunky mechanic in Nature Witch where you are supposed to attempt to complete four "trials" from a list. And the list is random AF. "Kiss someone dangerous," "Lose something important to you," "Ride a magical beast," etc.

Okay, a little side rant, I find this kind of disrupting as a GM. Like, Nature Witches are often just doing things in the game that seem like left turns because they are trying to check off their ticky boxes in order to gain experience points or whatever is the prize for having completed their list.  So, when I homebrewed my cyberpunk game I wrote a list of trials to chose from that would ACTUALLY ADVANCE MY DAMN PLOT and move people around the board, as it were. Like, before I thought to do this, I found my test game's Nature Witch just leading everyone fully away from anything remotely connected--which is fine in a longer campaign, I'd imagine, but kind of nuts if you assume people want to sort of have a conclusion to the story you promised. (And yeah, I know most one shots turn into three or four session games, but I'll have you know both one-shots I ran at ConFABulous got to a resolution in 3 hours! And, Emily also wrapped our story up in 2!)

But, so I actually tried to see if there were trials I could do that would fit with a pirate scenario. I managed to get two out of my four completed, but that felt satisfying enough. I don't know. I will say that enjoyed this game playing as a Nature Witch, so that was a success. 

I also took full advantage of the TSL / Powered by the Apocalypse gaming culture wherein players have a lot more agency than your average D&D player. The other players elected my character to be the Captain of our pirate ship and, so I asked them what they all thought their jobs were, and first mate/XO, gunner (for the Beast, naturally), and cook all got snapped up fast, but our Spooky Witch character was at a loss, so I just declared (like you can in PbtA games) that because I'm a Nature Witch and spacy like that, I kind of just found our ship? It ran aground in whatever cove I normally holed up in and so I just took it over, like you do. A crew was still on it, however, but they were ghosts, and so we needed a Spooky Witch to be our ghost wrangler. Our ship is basically haunted all the time, maybe isn't even really sea worthy (magic might be involved), but we don't let that stop us. This DELIGHTED our Spooky Witch. The GM was also really happy because that was a whole extra layer of flavor that she could weave in. 

So, it was a fun game. We kind of resisted the plot unintentionally, it turned out. None of us wanted to trust the pirate queen's girlfriend, because when the GM asked me how I might have known this person I immediately declared them an ex and so the whole rest of the crew was disinclined to want to help. But, it was clear where the bread crumbs were leading and we got the two back together in time for a nice finale. 

It was a FANTASTIC way to spend two hours, plus I got a swag bag to take home. There weren't any games in the bag that I was particularly interested, but they were fun to look through before they made their way to my little free library. 

Anyway, that was my weekend. YARRR!  You?

I think there might be a few people here interested in reading my latest Star Trek: Adventures RPG fic. I'm going to post the Safe for Work version here, but the NSFW option can be found here (along with all the other Sular fics) over at Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48810082/chapters/123129571 (<-- the full series, including the Vulcan smut. The direct link to the smut is embedded above.)

As usual, the fic appears under the cut.

( to save scrolling fingers )