Notes

Maybe the Weirdness Resurfaces?

This week, I took a break from working. This is the most contiguous time off I've had since July and it was nice to have some time off.



My financial dependence on my employer has made me very sad.



Books



This week, I didn't read any books. I'm thinking I should find some new reading material. Most of the books I've left are RPG rulebooks or non-fiction. I only read them when I'm feeling the need.



Gaming



Ars Magica



This week, I held the first session in my brand new Ars Magica campaign. The players were recruited to help locate the missing village children, who nobody had seen for some hours. It was the vernal solstice-a night of magic and folklore. the children had fallen under the influence of a kelpie that was determined to act out its story of drowning unwary victims.



There wasn't really much to do, the characters had to (1) locate the way to fairyland, (2) walk in straight lines through a fairy forest which could attempt to confuse their sense of direction and (3) drive off the kelpie in some way. It was a breeze to follow, and not many options for the players. To help us to start using the system, I created a basic plot. This worked out great as even so we required to read the spell-creation rules quite a bit (which was what I was expecting). I was surprised to learn that they initially saw the large faerie horse beast and decided to take on 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'm hoping they'll be more likely to try magic first the next time.



While I wasn't sure how it would take however, I did have a different adventure (visiting and making an impression on the abbot at the nearby monastery) that I had planned, but didn't have time for.



Inscryption



This week I tried Inscryption. It's a bizarre deck-building/escape-room game that makes you feel as if you're in the cave of a mad game master who is making up rules as they go.



At least, the first part of the game is. Based on what I've seen, there's a second part that seems quite different. I don't know if I'll give it much of my time but it was the strange atmosphere that attracted me initially. Maybe the weirdness returns? I'm not sure if it's worth it to put in the effort to discover the truth.



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



I'm not much of a Minecraft player these days, I tend to get bored once I've got a self-sufficient base up and running (which doesn't take very long at all) because building large things doesn't appeal to me that much. I'm not the game's target market.



But I do like trying it out every now and then, and playing on servers with my friends. 1.18 brings some very fundamental changes to world generation that I'm looking forward to trying out.



Miscellaneous



This week I was able to catch up on some television: I watched The Mandalorian and Foundation. Both were excellent and featured lots of cool visuals, like this FTL jump in the first episode of Foundation00. In fact, this is the most awesome FTL jump I've ever seen. I was tempted to redesign the deckplans of the ship when this series was available prior to my start of my Traveller game.



). I look forward to more.



If I had to make a criticism, it's that I'm finding the Empire storyline of Foundation more captivating than, well, the Foundation storyline of Foundation. This is a reflection of the stories I enjoy. The Empire storyline is about large epic, galaxy-shaking events as well as the end of an era. It's more about the events than the characters. The Foundation storyline is more about people, while the events themselves are small in scale. Minecraft names However, I do prefer large-scale events!


Website: https://minecraft-names.com/