DM of the Rings IX: Too Warm a Welcome

By Bay Posted Sunday Mar 5, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 20 comments

When you want an image to use for your character portrait, you have two choices:

  1. Spend years mastering the art of sci-fi / fantasy illustration. Perhaps attend art school. Hone your craft until you can fully realize your character on paper just as you imagine them.
  2. Use Google Image Search and swipe something that looks roughly like how you want your character to look.

For whatever reason, most players take the lazy way and opt for #2, despite the fact that there is a 90% chance they are going to look like a brooding androgynous goth / punk elf holding the wrong weapon.

Go figure.

–  Shamus, Monday Sep 25, 2006

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings IX: Too Warm a Welcome”

 


 

Medicated!

By Bay Posted Friday Mar 3, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, Personal 31 comments

After a six month waiting period, I’ve finally gotten in with a rheumatologist. Yay! Drugs! So many helpful drugs. Thank God for modern medicine.

But, this does mean a short transitional period. My hands feel like they’ve been run over by a train while I wait for this stuff to kick in. Next week, we explore Lorretta and Michael’s meeting. This week, what are you guys playing/watching/doing?

I’m currently introducing Elliot to Doctor Who and finally watching all the post-Tennant content I never touched. Good time to binge-watch something, but I have to admit, still not a Matt Smith fan.

 


 

DM of the Rings Remaster: A Tearful Reunion

By Bay Posted Sunday Feb 26, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 37 comments

Yes, black dragons are powerful. So are level-20 fireballs, demi-gods, and huge mythic beasts. But there is no force in the game as powerful as the combined selfishness and apathy of your players.

–  Shamus, Friday Sep 22, 2006

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings Remaster: A Tearful Reunion”

 


 

Sims 4 Overthinking: Getting to Work

By Bay Posted Friday Feb 24, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, The Sims Overthinking 14 comments

The first order of business this week is scraping off wallpaper. Lorretta has help in the form of her oldest daughter, and the two of them spend a weekend taking the wallpaper down and out of the living room. They start working on the entryway before her daughter has to return to university, leaving Lorretta fully alone. Lorretta is in her fifties, and realizing very quickly that she hasn’t been entirely alone for more than a few days, ever. She’d moved right from her parents house into her married life of husband and children, and now she has a big open house to herself.

Some moments it’s nice, some it’s not, she’s conflicted on the subject.

She finishes taking the wallpaper down and out of the entryway, and debates back and forth hiring a professional.  On one hand, the work is hard and she’s doing it alone. A contractor would have the same job done in half the time and twice as good. On the other hand, though, Jimbo told Lorretta about the water damage upstairs, and she’s trying to save her budget for fixing that.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Getting to Work”

 


 

DM of the Rings Remaster: Let’s go Shopping!

By Bay Posted Sunday Feb 19, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 16 comments

 

Remember, nothing will spice up your campaign quicker than long descriptions of NPC’s doing spectacular stuff while the players sit around and watch.

–  Shamus, Wednesday Sep 20, 2006

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings Remaster: Let’s go Shopping!”

 


 

Sims 4 Overthinking: Good Bones

By Bay Posted Friday Feb 17, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, The Sims Overthinking 17 comments

The year is 2000, Lorretta Whitman is 55 years old, and she has just inherited 1605 Cottonview Lane, the house built by her grandparents in the early ’20s. She is going twice a week to Jimbo’s apartment to cook, clean, and help keep his medications organized for him.

He thinks it’s pity, but she’s worried it’s selfish. She doesn’t want to be at home. Home is quiet, and a little unsettling. She and her husband have two daughters who have now gone off to university. With the girls gone, it’s been hard for her to ignore the growing sense of distance and resentment she shares with the man she married. Instead, she has thrown herself into as many little jobs as she can.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Good Bones”

 


 

DM of the Rings Remaster: Lootless

By Bay Posted Sunday Feb 12, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 17 comments

On one hand, it makes no sense for the monsters and encounter areas of the gameworld to come pre-stocked with loot. It also makes no sense for feral beasts and the shambling undead to walk around carrying fabulous cash prizes.

On the other hand, gold coins are shiny and make a fun jingling sound when you have lots of them.

–  Shamus, Monday Sep 18, 2006

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings Remaster: Lootless”

 


 
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