Tag: gaming

Hey, I got to wake up at the normal time for a change! Also people said I’m good in the training meeting because I don’t freak out when the scary senior guy asks questions.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Back to the Jovian marines, who are already finding out terrible things and losing SAN, and it’s only their first day deep in the asshole of Jupiter.

Read: Failed Princesses vol 4 (Ajiichi): Awww, that went about as well as it could.

Read: Positively Izzie (Terri Libenson): Another graphic novel about the drama of two middle-school girls (who appeared as side characters in Invisible Emmy)which has a surprise ending.

Read: Becoming Brianna (Terri Libenson): This time, only about one girl. Mostly. Also bat mitzvah anxiety and a cool rabbi.

Words: FAIL.

No side effects, except a minor headache. I hope this means my immune system is quietly competent, and not slacking off. “New antigen? Throw it on the pile, we’ll get around to it. Probably.”

Omicron is not so prevalent (yet) that Marith and I cannot visit Monkeycat Towers, so we did.

Watched: Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions 1.1-2: Rewatching because now Jus is old enough to appreciate it.

Watched: Fruits Basket 2.1-2: Ayse and Ken have only seen season 1, so we are rewatching it with them, and then eventually we will all watch season 3 together.

Eaten: Delicious Thai food! Also like one seasonal ginger cookie. It was good!

Played: Zoomwarts. Since we changed the schedule to game when Marith is both tired and allergic, maybe it was best that all her characters were petrified? (No, it was not best.) But Bella continued to be heroic despite the IMMENSE DOOM closing in from every side and now she has an excuse to look for Harry.

Words: 208. I think I used all my brain socializing.

Too many meetings. Nobody even likes meetings.

Apparently the fine needle is not enough, so the medical apparatus needs to take core samples of my thyroid, because nodules. This is sounding alarming geological. I hope the next step isn’t strip-mining.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Vivian’s adventure concluded with moderate bloodshed and no existential threats to the solar system, so we’ll call that a win. It’s nice when some Firewall alerts turn out to be just regular shenanigans and not TITAN shenanigans. That was probably the last game of the year, since Dave is out next Thursday and the Thursday after.

Read: Gürlz (Serge Birault): Cartoony style. Young women in modern or postapocalyptic clothes. Improbably large melee weapons with eyeballs and bad attitudes. The author as a vaguely octopoid blob, sometimes with his wife/dog/childblobs. Skull-faced robots, or their decapitated heads. Much more cheerful than this sounds!

Words: FAIL.

Played: Lancer. I mean, mostly we talked about kids these days and how the world is going to hell and made dreadful jokes, but also our characters found a crater and a crashed spaceship and a giant cockroach-base and a mad scientist. Rumble!

Read: Chamomile #1-243: 20-something retail slice of life, with only minor surreal elements (like brush-eating hair), very cute.

Read: Looking For Group (Alexis Hall): What if the hot elf girl in WoW Totally Fictional MMORPG turns out to be played by a guy, but you still kind of like him, and everything is great until you listen to your asshole friend too much and screw everything up? Not at all deep, but cute.

Words: 689, but I’m not sure they’re right.

Visited: Ayse and Ken and Jus and Nonny and Dave, because everyone is vaccinated now, and some people are even boosted. Yay, human contact! Grown-up conversation!

Played: Zoomwarts. The PCs went into the plumbing to show the teachers where the basilisk lair was, and I let the dice do their thing. Now Bella is frozen, somewhere under the castle, with a bunch of petrified or half-dead people and limited firewood. I wonder how she’s going to get out of this?

Eaten: The turkey chili of happiness.

Watched: Nothing, but maybe we have a plan for next time.

Words: 364 words about kittens.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Ken is just back from San Diego, so Vivian started her adventure and Ken’s character will get involved in the mess next week. (Actually, his character is probably one of the people we’re trying to rescue, so technically they’re already involved.)

Read: Komi Can’t Communicate vol 16 (Tomohito Oda): Cultural festival, and Komi is not the princess in the play. Well, not the play where the princess has lines. Also, Manbagi seems to have just realized the shape of her doom.

Words: 269 words about kittens.

Ugh, customer, was waiting until I was trying to do something useful with my afternoon and then sending a bunch of messages that required nothing but acknowledgement really the best use of your Saturday? None of that couldn’t have waited until Monday.

Played: Zoomwarts, finally! I forgot how everything works, but at least there was a flood of rats. That’s something, right? Right?

Words: 554 words about kittens. I got distracted by trying to manage my thousands of browser tabs.

This week has too many days, and this weekend isn’t going to have enough, I can just tell.

I got to feel like I knew what was going on in the training meeting today, which is always nice.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Ken still hasn’t had time to prep the usual campaign, so we made characters for a side plot where terrible things happen to Jovian Marines. It’ll be great.

Words: 231, which isn’t many, but Thursdays are usually 0.

I guess I did a work, or something.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Only little, mostly followup from the last adventure(s) while trying to get our NPCs to stay on track. Then we started thinking about characters for the playtest version we have of the Ninefox Gambit RPG. I’m afraid it may require an actual character concept, so I’m probably going to have to drop out.

NaNoWriMo Words: FAIL. I tried to write some after gaming, but my brain is too dumb.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Why is the space station made of meat allergic to us now? We didn’t do anything!

Read: ReDawn (Brandon Sanderson, Janci Patterson): second of the three novellas between the second and third books of the main trilogy. These are not at all side stories, major alien butt is being kicked plot developments are occurring! Despite how the other characters talk up the MC, they have no problem doing the thing or the other thing.

Words: FAIL.

Burger.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. The PCs more or less accomplished their sub-quest goals and returned to Meathab with suitable amounts of SAN loss on everyone’s part, rescuee included.

Read: Cradle and Grave (Anya Ow): I was turned on to this by a James Nicoll column about books in which changing the laws of physics definitely is a good plan and cannot have any unforeseen side effects, but it’s mostly post-apocalyptic for obvious reasons. Horrible mutations, road trip, cannibal weirdos, monsters, betrayal, totally sus patrons, additional mutation in real time.

Words: FAIL.

I only did one thing today, and the travel was much easier than in times past, but apparently that still used up my entire brain. I got hard-boiled eggs from Marith, though.

Played: Lancer. Leveling up worked a lot better with the other players. Apparently I’m support and spotter for the sniper, but also leader, and getting licenses for the SSC Swallowtail. New mission, which requires us to get out of our mechs (clutch pearls). No combat so far, but next session should be exciting.

Read: The Falling In Love Montage (Ciara Smyth): High school senior (equivalent) lesbians, genetic doom, “it’s just a summer fling”, family drama, surprisingly awesome stepparentage, rom-coms are a highly dubious guide to life.

Read: The Case Study of Vanitas vol 2 (Jun Mochizuki): Noé’s tragic history flashback and Vanitas’s tryst in the middle of the Masked Ball Attack.

Words: Check.

The cleaners were at 10 instead of at 8, which threw my whole morning off, but I managed to go shopping and eat a lunch and stuff. Not prepare for gaming tomorrow, though. Also I was on call all afternoon, but nothing happened. Good work, customers!

Played: Zoomwarts. That was a pretty good session. Bella and co saved the missing rats and only Bella got double-grounded (for cheating in a duel against her romantic rival at lunch).

Read: “The Tomato Thief” (Ursula Vernon): A scary old lady and the monster that’s stealing her perfect tomatoes.

Read: Amissio ch 1-5 (Paroro): Lost humans in a mysterious realm of lost things and tentacle monsters and other weirdness. Creepy cute.

Words: Surprisingly, check.

Got up early for medical stabbing again, but actually the stabbing has been referred to a more specialized specialist. I did get explained to, however, and apparently even if the special stabbing determines the worst, it’s totally treatable. Probably. Mostly.

More customer calls. No end of customer calls. Only doom.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Lots of investigation, most of it virtual. If I were converting Eclipse Phase to a better system, I probably wouldn’t make infosec a niche. It’s too useful all of the time, it needs to be divided up so everybody can do different parts of it. Maybe like the domains in Spire?

Read: Inhibitor Phase (Alastair Reynolds): Feels like the conclusion to the “Revelation Space” series, even though it’s not the last story chronologically, maybe because it’s after almost everything is wrecked, or maybe because it has some tour-of-the-setting feel, or maybe because even more is wrecked after the PCs visit it. Also lots about identity to go with the alien mysteries.

Read: Tell Me How You Really Feel (Aminah Mae Safi): High school senior lesbians, cheerleader vs film student at fancy private school, mortal-enemies-to-mandatory-group-project, feminist film-making, LA landmarks, the burden of ancestral expectations.

Words: FAIL.

Played: Lancer. Since we missed last session, we had to have twice the usual amount of non-gaming socialization, including complaining about Kids These Days, but there was time for some skill challenges and a fight against an overwhelming opponent. Kappa lasted slightly longer against them than the other two, and with a couple of better rolls could have forced the opponent to make a roll that could have taken them out if they rolled badly enough, so I claim a moral victory. The PCs had already won by that point, though, so defeating the final boss was just for style points. Now we get to level up and pick mecha to work toward while Dave tries to come up with another adventure.

Read: Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers vol 1 (Chorisuke Natsumi): The scary-faced-looming-guy-who’s-secretly-nice trope, but this time it’s a busty high-school girl, and the friend who understands her niceness is her head-shorter sempai.

Words: Check.

I think it’s LIRALEN-DAY!!

For some reason, Jus continues to be twelve. Weird.

I have now been sleeping on my new bed for a whole week. It is definitely fulfilling its role, inasmuch as I wish I were in it whenever I’m not, rather than vice versa, but it has not revolutionized my life. I think this is more likely to be a deficiency in my life, rather than in the bed.

Played: Zoomwarts. As someone who had a boyfriend for five whole days, Bella was eagerly sought after for romantic advice by the Hufflepuff first-years during her stakeout. Next session: party!

Read: The Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion and The Barrow Will Send What It May (Margaret Killjoy): Anarchists and serious punks vs really quite creepy magic and those who get mixed up in it. There are always consequences. Sadly there don’t seem to be any more in this series.

Words: Check.

Work meetings, some regularly scheduled and some with customers. At least the customers don’t demand to gaze upon my grotesque visage.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. There is some fear that Kelsey and Vivian may want completely disjoint things from games, but Ken hasn’t interviewed Kelsey yet, so we just don’t know. The remaining PCs got sent to deal with another thing that turns out to in fact be another tentacle of the same thing, but now those forks have an actual goal.

Words: FAIL.

I bought a new mattress! It will be delivered tomorrow. Hopefully I will not regret spending $800 instead of $4000 (or instead of $0).

Played: Zoomwarts. Apparently I have forgotten how to GM.

Read: Not Even Bones (Rebecca Shaeffer): Another recommendation from Iron Widow, but this one is even darker. The main character has spent most of her life dissecting dead supernatural creatures her mom brings home into parts for sale on the black market, but then her mom brings home a live one and everything goes to hell. Cannibalism, torture, murder, slavery, difficult moral decisions, monsters both human and otherwise. Not recommended for anyone prone to nightmares.

Read: Mage-Commander (Glynn Stewart): 11(?)th of the missiles-in-space-but-with-magic series. Not a lot of interesting new material, and the major threat is still completely offscreen and unknown to most of the characters while they deal with threats on their own level.

Words: Check.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. We ran out of pictionary, so finally it was time for Meathab and the cultists and the second-order cultists and a lot of whiskey and also hall lizards. The other instance of my character seems to be handling the memetic virus responsibly, but is there actually any way to be responsible with such a thing? A question for next session. Kelsey has abandoned us, though, because Eclipse Phase isn’t doing it for her. Which is sad, but it is kind of niche, at least the way we play it. I’m sure other tables have spaceship chases and laser fights every session.

Words: FAIL.

Cleaner showed up early, so I was able to go grocery shopping in the morning instead of halfway through the day, but it was still just grocery shopping. I did, however, while getting Thai lunch, snag the last three packs of Diet Snapple at Bevmo!

We didn’t even try to go over to Ayse and Ken’s place. I don’t even know, man. Between Marith being exploited and abused by her job and Delta everywhere and everything, does life even happen any more?

Played: Zoomwarts. More canon contents, with dementors, but the PCs turned their prisoner over to Dumbledore and got grounded. Also Bella got dumped?! That can’t be right! Why is Heron acting so weird? Is everybody doomed?

Words: Check.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. We found the confusing NPC and played terrible Pictionary for the fate of the solar system.

Read: Pumpkin (Julie Murphy): Set in the same small Texas town as Dumplin’ a couple of years later (the previous main character appears in a secondary role), a fat, very gay boy is nominated for prom queen and uses the power of drag. Among other life events.

Read: Puddin’ (Julie Murphy): This actually goes in between the other two books, but whatever. Two extremely different girls in the same Texas town somehow become friends despite a lot of everything.

Words: FAIL.

So apparently this is supposed to be called “Patriot Day”, because DHS and TSA and Gauntanamo Bay Torture Facility are all things to celebrate. Do Not Want. Republicans Fuck Right Off.

Despite a general hatred for Americans, I managed to go grocery shopping and stuff, so it’s like a successful Saturday. Still no visiting at Ayse & Ken’s because Nonny didn’t sleep and so everyone is frazzled.

Played: Zoomwarts. I tried to implement some of the doom I made notes on from the movies, but I think people were too unfocused to do anything with it. Maybe next time. Also Bella has apparently dumped her new love interest already.

Words: I found a continuity error dating from a year ago in the kitten words, which destroyed my motivation. I later found out that it didn’t come up until just a couple of months ago, but by then it was too late.

I did not want a three-hour customer meeting on top of the regular Thursday meetings.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. After a lot of looking up images for Meathab, we actually played the PCs going to the Titanian outback in search of a fleeting network connection and now they are taking to the sea Kraken Mare in a rental boat piloted by someone named Wriggly Sven in search of someone who may be harboring a dangerous memetic virus.

Words: FAIL.

Played: Lancer. This time we had two combats, one against opponents with special powers that went about how it did in Dave’s simulation runs, and then one against a bunch of mooks that went really quickly because a) we all used our daily power, b) they couldn’t roll for beans, and c) we almost never missed. It was still pretty rough, I think the PCs took an average of at least 1 structure damage each, but now they are in control of the printer and can get a full repair. Apparently we are having enough fun that we will force Dave to come up with a second adventure.

Read: Devil’s Candy archives (Rem, Bikkuri): Up through the beginning of chapter 14. I really like this comic, it has a very TFOS vibe.

Words: Check, I guess, kinda.

Played: Eclipse Phase 2. Ken was not ready to run Meathab, so instead the PCs investigated more on Titan even though Kelsey wasn’t around to play Svafa. Then they egocast to Mars (Chi got a swarmanoid morph for Gimel, because no one that cool should have to be humanoid if they don’t want to) and sent Njal poking around the hab next to the hab that went dark, which has apparently become a military problem for the Planetary Consortium. Surely this will all be fine.

Read: You Have Been Judged (Craig Martelle, Michael Anderle): A young prosecutor, having snapped and murdered a scumbag who got acquitted even though she knew through inadmissable telepathic means that he was guilty, is sentenced to get cybered up and fly around the galaxy being judge, jury, and executioner, and otherwise enforce Imperial law without oversight. Neither the empire nor its laws are particularly just, so the whole thing is quite unsympathetic.

Words: FAIL, but at least I made some notes about what to write later.

Wait, September!? What?!

Also, what’s going on with the weather in NY/NJ? That’s ridiculous!

Marith said, “Space pirate school? Isn’t that just Moretsu Pirates?” But I don’t think so, because that was at most Secret Space Pirate After-School Club. I think Space Pirate School would be the less-prestigious rival to the school where scions of Well-Connected Galactic Families go. Also, aliens would be mandatory. So maybe it’s just TFOS? No, Hogwarts in space is different, boarding school instead of suburban American school.

Read: Between Family (WR Gingell): Nine books in, we finally find out some of Pet’s name, a bit about her family, more of her powers (to the brief regret of the boss villain), and then everything goes straight to hell, again. (It looks like Gingell only writes het romance, which is too bad, I was hoping for Morgana x Pet.)

Words: Check.