I have a cat.

My cat's name is Mary. She's black and has big yellow eyes and some sort of dangly belly hair that makes me think she has ringworms or something except she's from the Humane Society and I'm pretty sure they take better care of cats than that. For like $80, they'd better take good care of my future cat.

The reason I'm talking about my cat is because this is her:

It feels like my day revolves around my cat.

When I get up in the morning, she notices. She goes from wherever she was (sleeping in the closet, sleeping on my pillow, standing in the bath tub, charging towards and away from my socks, in my dresser drawers) to my bed, and then, to my face. She puts her face next to mine and sniffs it. I don't know why she does it, because it makes it hard to breathe and she knows what my face smells like. Protip: It smells the same way it did every single day before today, for the last two years.

Then, if I stay up, she starts meowing. Just like in the picture. Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. The entire time I'm getting up, brushing my teeth, filling my cup full of water, looking for pants that aren't pajama pants, she's either meowing or following me around. Because she loves me, and desperately needs my attention now that I'm finally not sleeping.

I love my cat. Sometimes, I don't quite know why.

The Insanity Workout

I am sweaty and tired. My shirt is sticking to me with the sheer force of the sweat I've accumulated for the past half an hour (or was it 45 minutes?). My calves ache, and I walk with an old man hobble.

Now, look. I'm not your typical RPG gamer, or your typical gamer in general. I'm not overweight. I'm not hideously underweight. I'm skinny, yeah, but not to the point where people poke fun of me, or make jokes on how skinny I am; at least, not anymore.

But I've been slacking off on keeping myself fit. Honestly, it feels nice to work out again. I'm more alert in the mornings, I'm sleeping better, I breathe easier, I eat more, and I feel better about myself. Plus, my girlfriend is excited that I'm going to have a "nice body" (her phrase, not mine) again. Honestly, it's pretty sweet.


I know, these last couple of posts haven't been RPG related. Eat me. I don't feel like writing about that right now.

Good God, it's been a minute

As I type these words, the taste of Green Onion potato chips lingers in my mouth. The crumbs are still on my pants. (What, you think I'm gonna let that crud get in my keyboard?) It's a bizarre taste, but one that isn't all that horrible.

I haven't made any progress on my module this month, but I expect that to change. I've started a workout regimen, changed my sleep schedule, and started to freelance write with more dedication. I've been busy trying to cocoon it up so that when I start feeling better, it'll be awesome.

Life goes in those little up and down cycles, although sometimes I suspect that mine are higher and lower than they have any right to be.

Anyways, expect some cool things coming from here. My mind's been percolating. Keep an eye on this space...

Squonk

The squonk is a real-life "monster" that apparently is so ugly that it spends most of its time hiding and crying. If you catch one, it can turn into a puddle of tears and bubbles and evade capture. It apparently exists in the forests of Pennsylvania, although it's hard to imagine a creature with such existential angst would make it very far in the world.

Regardless, I think that squonks will feature in the next thing I write. There's something about these warthog-like doofus things that's got a lot of pathos.

September Module: Adderhold

This month's module is going to be a little more traditional, but still with a twist or two in there.

It's going to feature a physically enormous warlord (think Xerxes in 300) who has plans of not just ruling the kingdom, but of being acknowledged as a god. He's decimating his foes and nigh-unstoppable in battle.

He looks like this guy.

So what do the currently ruling powers (who very much would like to continue to be the current ruling powers) do? They hire the PCs to infiltrate the dude's place and learn what they can. They need to figure out how he knows their battle plans, if he has a sorcerer on his side, who he really is and where he came from. They want the PCs to poison his castle's well, and to break open his wine barrels, make as much of a problem as humanly possible without getting caught.

Of course, the PCs can get violent, too, if they want, but that'll be significantly more difficult than sneaking around and being subtle. It's all in how the PCs want it, I suppose.

Samore's Daughter's Permissions

I set the mini-module to be public. Sorry about that! Google Docs defaults to private, and I'd forgotten to change it.

Let me know if there are any further problems with the download, but it should be working as intended.

One Month Module #1: Samore's Daughter

So the module's about as finished as it'll ever be. To be honest, it feels like it's not enough, like I aimed too low for the first one. It was interesting, though, writing something with such a definite and inflexible deadline.

I think it turned out ok. It is what it is- a small scenario that you can plunk down in the middle of anywhere. It's not especially violent, it's not especially creative. It's a situation that calls for subtlety and creativity, that allows a lot of DM interpretation.

Honestly, I'm not particularly happy with it. I know there are holes in it. For example, there's no art, not even clip art. There's not a map, although I don't think a map would help very much. There's no list of things you can buy at the city, there's no mention of wizards or dragons or magic. If you play through it right, there probably won't even be any fighting.

Honestly, Samore's Daughter is more of a teaser than an actual module. It's the sort of thing I'd run when nobody's really sure what everybody's supposed to be doing, to get a little bit of action and intrigue going, where the players have to decide whose side they're on and what they're going to do about it, and then you can have a couple of loose end tying sessions and then there you are. Like my other modules, it is extremely short. This one clocks in at around three pages of actual content. But it's not pretentious, and it might even be long for what it is. It makes me think of Dune and a Game of Thrones, in that it's essentially about people moving around, although the way that the module is expressed perhaps doesn't make that clear.

Samore's Daughter isn't without its flaws, but I think it's at the very least a C. It's passable, it's different, and it might even be runnable. Who knows?

Pick up the PDF here.