Notes

Maybe the Weirdness Returns?

This week I was off working. This was the longest period I've been off since July. It was great to take a break.



Once again, my financial dependence on an employer makes me very sad.



Books



This week, I have no books. I'm thinking I should find some new reading material. The majority of the books I've got are RPG rulebooks or non-fiction. I only read them when I'm feeling the need.



Gaming



Ars Magica



I ran the first session of my new Ars Magica campaign this week. The participants were asked to help in the search for the missing children of the village. They hadn't seen them in hours. It was the vernal equinox-a night of magic and folklore. the children were under the influence of a kelpie, that was determined to act out its tale of drowning unwary victims.



There was nothing much to do, the players had to (1) locate the way to fairyland, (2) walk in straight lines through a fairy forest which tried to confuse their sense of direction, and (3) get rid of the kelpie. It was very easy to manage and the players had a few options. I came up with an intentionally simple plot in order to be able to ease into the system. Minecraft server list This turned out to be a great idea, as even with just this, we needed to go through the spell creation rules several times (which I had hoped for). I was shocked to learn that they first were awed by the massive horse faerie and decided to fight it physically. However, after one of them nearly dying (doing the Ars Magica equivalent of making death saves), and another realising there was a magical solution, I hope they'll be more inclined to attempt magic the next time around.



I certainly didn't know how long it would take though, I had a whole second adventure (visiting and making a favourable impression on the abbot from a nearby monastery) planned which we didn't have time to explore at all.



Inscryption



This week I was able to play Inscryption, a strange deck-building game that is like being trapped in the cabin of a mad game master who's composing rules as they go.



At least, the first part of the game is. Based on what I've seen, there is an additional part that is very different. I don't know if I'll give it much of my time but it was the odd atmosphere that attracted me to it in the first place. Maybe the weirdness comes back. I'm not sure if it's worth it to invest the time to find out.



We've set a release date for Minecraft 1.18 30th!



I'm not a big Minecraft player nowadays, and I'm usually bored once I've got a self-sufficient base running (which isn't a long time at all) because building large things isn't my thing all that much. I am not the target audience for the game.



However, I like giving it a go every now and then, and playing on servers with friends, and 1.18 brings some pretty fundamental changes to the world generation that I'm excited about trying out.



Miscellaneous



I was able to catch up on television this week, and I watched The Mandalorian and Foundation. Both were pretty great, lots of very impressive visuals (like this FTL jump from episode 1 of Foundation00In fact I believe this is the most amazing rendition of FTL jumps I've come across. I would have been tempted re-do the ship deckplans in the event that this series was available prior to the time I started my Traveller game.



). I look forward to more.



If I had to criticize the Foundation storyline, it would be that I find the Empire storyline from Foundation more compelling than the Foundation storyline. This is an indication of the stories I like. The Empire storyline revolves around large galaxy-shaking events, and the demise of the dynasty. It's more about events than people. The Foundation storyline is more about people, while the events themselves are smaller in terms of size. However, I prefer large-scale events!


Here's my website: https://minecraftserverlist.live/