Mexican Gothic, D&D, generally gaming well with others, and my weekend
I got it, started it, had to return it to the library when life intervened. I have now ordered it online (because I really want to finish it and I didn't want to go into a bookstore) and mentioned it to K., my Librarian Friend in Chicago. (One of several Librarian Friends in Chicago, so I suppose K. is Children's LFiC.) LFiC has now ordered it and I think we're now our own two person online book club. (Has anyone else read Mexican Gothic?)
K., J., Mr. Havoc, and I had a several hours long Zoom call to catch up on things, vent on the state of children's education today (teachers are struggling, parents are struggling, life is pretty shitty, if your kid makes it through without major emotional damage you'll be at a win, I swear), we did not remind J. he had COVID because we didn't want to trigger more of his anxiety, because he's also a teacher (he's in adjuncting hell, the man has a really great PhD and can't get a tenure-track job, but he cares so fucking much about his students). We made our kids say hello and then let them run off and not be bored when the adults started talking.
K and I also talked about gaming and running tabletop roleplaying games, and how K. and I like to throw out rules whenever we can, but we're running rules-heavy systems. She's presently running Pathfinder and I'm running D&D 5e. Either we inherited the games, or they're easy to run online. I've abandoned the concept of maps on combat because I really haven't taken the time to sit down on roll20 and figure out the mapping/figurine system. There are kobolds, and so I need to know at least for those guys. Oh kobolds, I kind of hate them.
My D&D session canceled yesterday, because S. had to work late. Which is probably for the best, because as I was reading through the chapter of the pregen module I'm running (D&D 5e is new to me), I realized that they need to be a level ahead of where the module calls for them to be. (There's at least one event that can do 2d12 damage to level 2 characters, which could conceivably drop any one of them, should I roll two 12s. Their access to healing is...negligible, as none of them wanted to play a cleric. I'm just going to start doubling healing potion awards from the module too.) So Mr. Havoc and the kidlet leveled up yesterday, and
abydosorphan and Mr. Abydos will level up later this week.
Mr. Abydos and
abydosorphan are 100% new to D&D, but
abydosorphan is in no way new to gaming (she used to play a lot of VtM, but not around me) nor to writing, so I throw in a lot of character development stuff when I can. Mr. Havoc is used to me doing this and the kidlet puts up with it. But I think this chapter might let me get some of the juicy character development stuff in now that they're not fighting their way through an assault.
I have the Field Notes GM Journal, which is less handy with the pregenerated module - I don't need the maps section or the NPC listing. But I did want to run something that would help me learn more about 5e, hence the module. So maybe I'll start using it now that we're doing juicy character development stuff - none of that is listed in the module. That's when I get to torture them too. I maybe did warn Mr. Abydos that everyone was going to be judging him for his Tiefling Rogue former assassin self. And they do. Oh, they do. It's so delightful. But he's loving his first D&D character, and so am I. (As an on-and-off-again World of Darkness player, I might be overly describing his character's actions, but, he enjoys it. Dark fic writers and gamers of the world, unite.) I really do hope
abydosorphan has warned him that I love to torture characters in any setting, though.
But I'm looking forward to the next session. Still enough combat to keep folks happy, but I think there will be juicy character development stuff too. This entry has been cross-posted to Dreamwidth (
comments). Comments are welcome on either post.
K., J., Mr. Havoc, and I had a several hours long Zoom call to catch up on things, vent on the state of children's education today (teachers are struggling, parents are struggling, life is pretty shitty, if your kid makes it through without major emotional damage you'll be at a win, I swear), we did not remind J. he had COVID because we didn't want to trigger more of his anxiety, because he's also a teacher (he's in adjuncting hell, the man has a really great PhD and can't get a tenure-track job, but he cares so fucking much about his students). We made our kids say hello and then let them run off and not be bored when the adults started talking.
K and I also talked about gaming and running tabletop roleplaying games, and how K. and I like to throw out rules whenever we can, but we're running rules-heavy systems. She's presently running Pathfinder and I'm running D&D 5e. Either we inherited the games, or they're easy to run online. I've abandoned the concept of maps on combat because I really haven't taken the time to sit down on roll20 and figure out the mapping/figurine system. There are kobolds, and so I need to know at least for those guys. Oh kobolds, I kind of hate them.
My D&D session canceled yesterday, because S. had to work late. Which is probably for the best, because as I was reading through the chapter of the pregen module I'm running (D&D 5e is new to me), I realized that they need to be a level ahead of where the module calls for them to be. (There's at least one event that can do 2d12 damage to level 2 characters, which could conceivably drop any one of them, should I roll two 12s. Their access to healing is...negligible, as none of them wanted to play a cleric. I'm just going to start doubling healing potion awards from the module too.) So Mr. Havoc and the kidlet leveled up yesterday, and
abydosorphan and Mr. Abydos will level up later this week.
Mr. Abydos and
abydosorphan are 100% new to D&D, but
abydosorphan is in no way new to gaming (she used to play a lot of VtM, but not around me) nor to writing, so I throw in a lot of character development stuff when I can. Mr. Havoc is used to me doing this and the kidlet puts up with it. But I think this chapter might let me get some of the juicy character development stuff in now that they're not fighting their way through an assault.
I have the Field Notes GM Journal, which is less handy with the pregenerated module - I don't need the maps section or the NPC listing. But I did want to run something that would help me learn more about 5e, hence the module. So maybe I'll start using it now that we're doing juicy character development stuff - none of that is listed in the module. That's when I get to torture them too. I maybe did warn Mr. Abydos that everyone was going to be judging him for his Tiefling Rogue former assassin self. And they do. Oh, they do. It's so delightful. But he's loving his first D&D character, and so am I. (As an on-and-off-again World of Darkness player, I might be overly describing his character's actions, but, he enjoys it. Dark fic writers and gamers of the world, unite.) I really do hope
abydosorphan has warned him that I love to torture characters in any setting, though.
But I'm looking forward to the next session. Still enough combat to keep folks happy, but I think there will be juicy character development stuff too. This entry has been cross-posted to Dreamwidth (
comments). Comments are welcome on either post.