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Episode 2632: Definitely Not a Loose Canyon

Repeat appearances of familiar scenery can be a good way to both establish continuity in your story and to evoke old memories of events that happened there the first time. This can be used to your advantage as a GM, as it provides ready-made associations that the players will remember.

If a site was the location of a particularly nasty defeat, or where things went badly wrong, then simply having the heroes go there again can make them apprehensive and cautious. Or if it was the place of a stirring victory or other positive event, it can make them feel good to be there again - perhaps unprepared for something bad that might happen...

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Aw, come on Chewie, don't Overburden yourself like that. You don't need to get all of the bad guys to chase your speeder by removing the only other target they've got.

I have to say this is a pretty neat set up for the Irregulars here. I don't think the idea of Jim having such enthusiasm about geology had been quite solidified to this degree when the pod race happened. Or maybe it just didn't have the chance to get expressed like this since Jim did come up with the idea for how Naboo actually works later that episode. And, well, the podracing scene was also compressed into a lot of dice rolling. Either way, I hope we get a lot more Gneiss scenes of the players getting excited about things they personally like.

Transcript

renay: photo of the milky way from new zealand on a clear night (Default)
[personal profile] renay posting in [community profile] ladybusiness
We're counting down until mid-year!

Myy May TBR turned out to be more of a suggestion.


I read What Moves the Dead because I managed to read What Feasts at Night. And although I didn't get to The Brides of High Hill, I did reread The Empress of Salt and Fortune and grab When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain on my way to it. :D

Read more... )

. . .

Jun. 8th, 2025 12:30 am
settiai: (Delenn -- lifeistoobrevis)
[personal profile] settiai
I'm still not feeling particularly great, but my brain has at least stopped spiraling quite as badly. So that's something at least. I'm still definitely worried about covering upcoming bills, but it doesn't feel as completely impossible as it did when I made my last post.

If you reached out, thank you very much, and I want you to know that it really did help a lot. 💕

I'm not quite at a point brain-wise where I think that I can send out replies to people without being completely overwhelmed, and - while I'm not going to disable comments on this post like I did earlier - I probably won't be replying to any of them at least for the time being. I'm at a point where human interaction is definitely difficult right now, especially since I need to save up any spoons I can for work on Monday as I'm in the office that day.

After I made my post this afternoon, I got offline for several hours. I forced myself to clean the hotel room before buzzing my hair, taking a shower, bleaching my roots, and putting some dye in my hair to re-up the orange. Honestly, it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it at least helped some.

And then I tried to go to bed early, although that clearly didn't work out very well considering it's a little after midnight and I've given up and am back on the computer. As is often the case when I go to bed too early, my body decided it was intended to be a nap rather than proper sleep, so I'm wide awake again and probably will remain so until at least 3am now.

Still, my spoons continue to be very much in the negative, but I at least feel more like a human being than I did earlier. One step at a time, I suppose?
musesfool: a glass of iced coffee with milk (nectar of the gods)
[personal profile] musesfool
I used decaf to make coffee granita last night, and I had it for dessert this evening along with a dollop of homemade whipped cream, and it seems to have worked out all right - no late evening side effects of caffeine that I can feel. And I think it's better later in the day as a treat than as my morning coffee, because I eat it so quickly and also it's sweet. I don't put any sugar in my regular coffee, but granita requires it so it doesn't freeze solid. I used vanilla sugar but can't really detect the vanilla (or, rather, differentiate it from the vanilla in the whipped cream).

Also, they were on sale, so I bought a pack of paper plates and they made cleanup after cooking so easy that I remembered why I used to use them regularly back before I had a dishwasher. My plan to replace my dead dishwasher is to try the 4th of July sales - Friend L is going to join me at the store to see if the model I want (Bosch) actually fits in the space I've got (and if it goes on sale - it did not for Memorial Day, that I saw, but maybe I don't need the more expensive/top-of-the-line model? It's just that it has something that will allegedly turn the machine off if it senses a leak, which seems like a good thing to have, especially when you live in an apartment above other people and are responsible if any leakage causes damages below you). Anyway, July is a three-paycheck month, which gives me some leeway for paying most of it off ASAP and not increasing my credit card debt any more than I have to.

*

(no subject)

Jun. 7th, 2025 05:11 pm
watersword: Zoe Saldana flexing her biceps (Zoe Saldana: biceps)
[personal profile] watersword

Over the course of about six hours this week, the weather went from "pleasant warm early-summer" to "holy bananas, it is hot and sticky high summer" and I was not emotionally prepared for it. But I am promised thunderstorms today, and I got cucumbers at the farmer's market, and will finish swapping out the cozy linens for the crisp ones, and all of that will help.

word count

Jun. 7th, 2025 04:11 pm
tassosss: Shen Wei Zhao Yunlan Era (Default)
[personal profile] tassosss
Today: 4,222 words

Total: 104,505.

I'm so close to the end. 1.5 chapters to go.

Zines

Jun. 7th, 2025 09:05 am
used_songs: (Phoenix)
[personal profile] used_songs
I FINALLY printed copies of the zines I made during April and May. If you would like some, send me a message with your address and I will get them in the mail. I am not comment screening, so don’t leave your address here!

LEGO Party!

Jun. 6th, 2025 07:18 pm
settiai: (Beer -- __alt_icons)
[personal profile] settiai


One of my friends helped design this game! Elliot, who I've been playing D&D with since 2017, has been working on a top secret project for several years now, and he finally got to admit that this was it because the trailer dropped this afternoon.

Honestly, it looks like a lot of fun. And unlike Mario Party, it's not system locked so you and anyone you're playing with can be on different devices. Considering the huge number of game assets that he designed? I'm so very proud of him.
musesfool: samira mohan from the pitt (live your life filled with joy & wonder)
[personal profile] musesfool
The Mets lost a game yesterday they should have won, but I guess it doesn't matter that much because they took the season series from the Dodgers, which means if they are both divisional winners and meet in the NLCS in October, the Mets will have home field advantage. I mean, it would have been nice for them to win on a day when both Atlanta and Philly lost, but I guess you can't have everything.

Anyway, staying up for the previous games in the series (they were out in LA) caught up with me and I couldn't keep my eyes open last night, so I ended up going right to bed at 8:30. It wasn't even fully dark yet! But I slept through till 4:15, got up to use the bathroom, and then slept through again till my alarm went off at 8:15, so I guess I really needed it. I had a lot of dreams, but the one that stuck with me was something where I was already in the hospital visiting someone, and the doctor was like, "we need to talk about your appendix, it needs to come out!" And I was like, "that's news to me since I haven't had an appendix since 1976!" (truth!) And she was like, "what?" and I was like, "what?" and then the dream moved on - I don't remember anything else.

There's really not a whole lot else going on. Work is busy - our CFO keeps trying to steal me away from my boss, but like, there's nothing in Finance for me to do? My main job is board support, and that belongs either in legal or the CEO's office, so...*hands* I guess if something ever happened to my position I might consider trying to transfer, but I just don't see how that would work. No one is indispensable, but no one else in this organization does what I do (and frankly, no one else wants to). If a new CEO comes in and has different ideas, that could be a problem, but I'm trying not to think about that too much. There are closer threats to my job right now. *gestures at everything*

*
[syndicated profile] darths_and_droids_feed

Episode 2631: Jumpin’ Slapdash, With a Gas Mass Ass

It's often a good idea for combat opponents to have some form of weakness that the PCs can exploit if they're clever. It gives them a way to feel clever, and provides some variety instead of every combat being just whittling away at hit points.

An important corollary of this is that it should be possible for the players to work out what the weakness is, either logically, or by observation potentially helped along with some hints. If members of an opposing humanoid tribe recoil from fire or light, that could indicate a way to weaken or harm them.

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

.... Huh. I guess they are actually on treads of some kind. But why? That'd be such a mess to maintain in a sandy environment. Jet troopers wouldn't need a boost like that to get into the air either. Maybe it's just to be able to tell which vehicles are which in far away scenes? That'd almost make sense, except for the bit where the main characters are being chased and would always be in front.

Nice that we get to see the split between the characters here. It looks like we've got Rey and Chewie on one speeder, and Poe, Finn, and Threepio on the other one. BB is too short to be visible, but looks like they're on the speeder with Rey and Chewie for character balance. I don't think there's much that the droid duo can do, but maybe BB will have some sort of trick inside. Grapple hooks on the jet troopers maybe?

Transcript

Supervillain levels pet peeve

Jun. 5th, 2025 09:28 am
schneefink: Taako grinning evilly (TAZ Taako evil grin)
[personal profile] schneefink
Pet peeve of mine: Superhero/supervillain AUs that aren't clear on the degree of villainy involved. Is this the kind of supervillain who commits elaborate art heists, or the kind of supervillain who blows up a hospital? Just showing them fighting superheroes doesn't make that clear. I want to assume it's the former in e.g. a civilian/supervillain romance but how am I meant to judge just how careless the civilian is acting if the fic doesn't say one way or the other.

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 6/4 Game

Jun. 5th, 2025 01:05 am
settiai: (Siân -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Couple Blake Lively Links

Jun. 3rd, 2025 03:33 pm
muccamukk: Text: Let me just go in the next room and crochet, while you have cigars and brandy and talk about beheadings. (HL: Men's Business)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Forbes: Taylor Swift And Blake Lively: Subpoena, Spectacle And Scrutiny.
IMO, dragging Swift in just to get attention, and then pretending Lively is the one dragging Swift in is just showing off how little Baldoni's team has on the legal side.

Reminder: Lively is suing over violations of her (and her female costars') right to a safe workplace. Leave Taylor Swift out of this.

The LA Times: Blake Lively backed by advocacy groups in legal fight with Justin Baldoni over #MeToo speech law

I don't think it's being reported enough that Baldoni's team is trying to strike down the law protecting survivors of sexual violence and discrimination from defamation suits. As in, get it declared unconstitutional because suing your victims should be part of Free Speech. Holy Fake Feminism, Batman.

Here's more about the law that Lively is invoking because this is a labour issue: Legislation to Protect Survivors of Sexual Assault, Harassment, and Discrimination from Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Signed by Governor.

Here's a Bloomburg piece about on of the "inspirations" for why California decided it needed this law [archive link]: Ex-FTC Commissioner Faces Storm of Sexual Harassment Claims.

One of the women in that case helped put together one of the amicus briefs [PDF of court document], so that the law she helped draft, intending to protect people like her, doesn't get struck down. She has now been stalked, harassed and doxxed for speaking up in support of the law, because the Lively hate train people are truly free of hinges.

DocWho

Jun. 4th, 2025 12:19 am
dhampyresa: (SCIENCE SMASH)
[personal profile] dhampyresa
8 episodes is way too short for Doctor Who. The core of the show is the Doctor + Companion(s) relationship(s) and there isn't any time for that in these Disney seasons.

Episode 2630: Mad Wax: Fury Mode

Jun. 3rd, 2025 09:11 am
[syndicated profile] darths_and_droids_feed

Episode 2630: Mad Wax: Fury Mode

Getting people unexpectedly onto a race track is a great device for mayhem and clever tricks. Refer to the ice demolition derby chase scene in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. (If you haven't seen it, it's as much fun as it sounds.)

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

There we go, the sand people are being pushed back to a life of crime by one of Jim's characters. All is back to normal with the comic's game universe. I wonder if this could have been avoided if anyone had made Poe listen to BB's suggestion of just asking politely.

.... Nah, the GM would probably just have had them blame the group for attracting the PIE fighters and parts of the village getting destroyed because of that.

Speaking of, where'd the PIE fighters go? I guess having "treadspeeders" chase is closer to Episode VI, but it's just silly to have the air fighters disappear beforehand. They could have at least been shot down first by Chewie and his super-crossbow or been shot at from elsewhere as a distraction. Ah well, I can hope that comes later after these treadspeeders get plastered into the sand.

"Not looking where you're going" penalty? Does that mean we should expect to see one or more speeders get scrapped by boulders in the next comic? I certainly am now!

Transcript

musesfool: orange slices (orange you glad)
[personal profile] musesfool
Work was nuts today, especially since I was out on Friday and some of my cow-orkers apparently just waited around for me to come back instead of sending an email themselves. Plus I had 2 committee meetings (unusual - we try not to do that unless we absolutely can't avoid it) but luckily 1 only lasted 15 minutes, so I was able to knock out the minutes in about a similar amount of time. *g*

Yesterday I roasted some ears of corn, and ate 2 for lunch and then scraped the other 3 into a big bowl and the added some crumbled up bacon, 2 pints of really beautiful grape tomatoes, some little pearls of fresh mozzarella, a sliced vidalia onion, and some salt and pepper, oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme, and dressed it all with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Delicious! I will make some orzo to add to it for lunch over the next couple of days and I am looking forward to it.

I also finally hit upon a good way to cook hotdogs without a grill - in the broiler. I don't eat them very often but a couple times during the summer I get a craving, so when they go on sale, I sometimes snag a pack and some soft, cheap buns to eat with them. Of course, since I have the palate of a 5-year-old, I still prefer ketchup on my hotdogs, but since I live alone, there's no one here to judge me. *g*

*The Dodgers, not the Mets. Sigh.

***
umadoshi: (lilacs 02)
[personal profile] umadoshi
It was not a productive weekend for me--awkward, because I had great intentions of getting an initial dent into my next rewrite. I did at least make it as far as reading through the translation and making some notes, but that was very much it.

The one thing I managed was a fair bit of reading:

I finished Vivian Shaw's Strange Practice (a fun read, and I'll probably move along with the series at some point--I think I may even already have the second book--but I don't feel any urgency about it) and followed it up in rapid succession with Copper Script (KJ Charles) and Titan of the Stars (E.K. Johnston), both of which only came out last week. (Two books within a week of their shared release date probably isn't actually a record, but it's certainly not my norm.) Both were great, in very different ways. I knew Johnston had two books coming out in pretty quick succession this season (Sky on Fire releases next month) and that one of them has a planned sequel, but somehow I assumed right up to the end of this one that it was the July book. But no! It's this one! (Unless they both do.) I expect it'll be a fairly different book, and will be very interested to see how things play out.

I'm also still picking my way through The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. (Kobo thinks I'm 78% done.)

Watching: [personal profile] scruloose and I saw the S2 TLOU finale last weekend, and at some point I'll probably ask around for broad and specific spoilers for the game, and that may impact how I feel about it. (Bella Ramsey knocked it out of the park, though. What a fantastic cast all around.)

We're also up to date on Murderbot. My inability to remember any plot specifics at all from All Systems Red (given that it's the only book in the series I've read more than once) is both a bit funny and annoying.

Eating: The Zuni method of dry-brining and roasting a chicken was a success again. Unrelatedly, I got [personal profile] scruloose to pick up an extra-dark maple syrup from a local producer, and we tried and enjoyed it last weekend. (This jug doesn't explicitly say "extra-dark" or anything like that, so it's possible it's not actually the one I heard mentioned, but it is very dark and they acquired it at the store that had been named, so I'm kinda assuming.)

Growing/Weathering: The lilacs have bloomed! It was windy enough yesterday, and rainy before that, that I was a little scared all the blossoms would blow right off, but that doesn't seem to have happened. I hope I remember to actually go outside and get some to bring inside.

The Sensation lilac [see icon, although that's not a pic of ours] is in pretty dire need of pruning, poor thing. The thought of actually making a(n approximately-)dated list of when to do specific garden things has passed through my mind, and if I'm lucky I'll actually try to assemble it. I think at least the last couple of years running we've looked up when to prune lilacs and then I've been thrown by the fact that our other one is a Bloomerang and presumably follows different rules.

Arlathan eXchange

Jun. 1st, 2025 12:25 pm
settiai: (Dragon Age -- offensive)
[personal profile] settiai
The Arlathan eXchange, a Dragon Age exchange focusing on elves, went live today. This year, I got not one but two lovely fics! 💕

First up is 152.41 is the Dewey Decimal for Love, a DA:TV fic featuring Bellara Lurate/Nonbinary Elf Aldwir. It's a Modern AU set in a university.

Then there's Mended Scars & Mended Hearts, which features Alistair/F!Surana/Leliana.
[syndicated profile] darths_and_droids_feed

Episode 2629: The Camel That Broke the Law’s Back

“Wanted” posters are a cool thing to have appear in a game. They can be adventure hooks, to get the party into a new plot. Because chasing down a criminal can lead to all sorts of interesting twists: maybe they're not really a criminal and have been framed, or maybe they are breaking laws but for ethical reasons (à la Robin Hood), or maybe they are villainous but they have an offer the PCs might not want to refuse.

Another twist is that the poster might contain an image and description of the party of heroes! What weirdness has happened to produce this turn of events?

aurilee writes:

Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)

Aww, no tank chase scene. I guess there was a speeder chase quota the movie needed to meet to match Episode VI or something, so we're going to have that instead. Unfortunately, there's going to be a definite lack of tree and brush cover, so hopefully the sand dunes and random boulders can provide enough replacement cover to allow the heroes* to escape. And just how big are these speeders anyway? The one Poe is under looks big enough for maybe half the group.

Isn't it nice when you can reuse earlier preparations on something new? I bet that speech was written for any number of Han Solo escapades. Or at least, ones that Sally could imagine needing for various backstory plot hooks, or perhaps even just for fun.

* Possibly including Poe.

Transcript

Meme

May. 31st, 2025 07:59 pm
used_songs: (My Backpack's Got Jets)
[personal profile] used_songs
A meme swiped from [personal profile] zimena :

Give me one of these in the replies. Then repost so I can do the same for you.

* A music rec (I would LOVE this in particular!)
* A cute message
* Why you follow me
* If we could meet, how would it go?
* Something you want to know about me
* One fact about you

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