Life is sometimes sort of okay because...

[Barrington Boots]

Really sorry to hear about your cat Tordelback. That's one of those small-against-the-big-picture things that can nevertheless really hollow you out. Sounds like a dignified end for him, hope you guys are ok.

Lovely about the D&D though. That's been a lifeline for me over the Lockdown. I have no children but being able to pass that onto one seems like a wonderful gift, such cool times await him!

[TordelBack]

Thanks for the kind thoughts, all. Didn't mean to bring down the thread, it was more by way of a qualified positive.

On the D&D front,  first session was a huge success - after a 4 hour game the lad was immediately being pestered to run another the following day. I was initially delighted to help with a debrief, meeting the inevitable self-doubting torrent of "I didn't get the attack bonuses right, I totally forgot about light sources, they wasted about an hour fussing about guarding the horses when they were perfectly safe, and how do spell slots work anyway" with the official grognardian response of "if you all enjoyed yourselves you got it perfectly right - it even says so right at the front of the book". Now, after almost two days of being dragged into brainstorming future character hooks and plot development, I'm starting to wish he'd taken up Scrabble instead...

[Funt Solo]

Oh, man - D&D. I used to Dungeon Master, and it really is less about the strict application of the rules and trying to make sure you've thought of everything, and more about being able to take things in whatever direction they happen to go.  Maybe you could use the guarding of the horses to introduce some other element on the fly - wandering monsters!

My pal used to game master for Paranoia, and used multiple rooms and character/player separation to really amp up the paranoia levels well.

I love back when White Dwarf was an rpg magazine and had articles on good DMing. Those probably exist as PDFs somewhere...

[paddykafka]

So sorry to hear about the passing of your feline friend, Tordelback.

[von Boom]

Condolences on the loss of your mate, Tordelback. Loosing a pet is as hard as losing any member of your family.

Finally moved into our new place Saturday. We are well rid of that scummy landlord but I don't recommend trying to move during covid. It took about three times as long as it should have and cost four times as much as it should have. Still, we're done and can look towards the future.

[Bolt-01]

Sorry to hear about your loss Tords, we recently lost a 'rescued from school' hamster that had been with us for 18 of his 26 month life.

Despite his diminutive stature, Peggy (don't, we know he was a boy, but this was the name he came home with) was a huge part of my initial lock-down and left a vastly disproportionate hole in my life.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Aw, sorry to hear that, Bolt.  I don't know much about hamsters but I believe that's a good long lifespan in hamster years.

[Apestrife]

I've probably mentioned it elsewhere, but I'm becoming an uncle next year. It and other prioritites have made come to a decision to more or less go off grid from forums and such.

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone for a great time on this forum. It was nice visiting it now and then.

Bye! 

[The Legendary Shark]

Take care, Apestrife.

Splundigs

xx

[JayzusB.Christ]

I've probably mentioned it elsewhere, but I'm becoming an uncle next year. It and other prioritites have made come to a decision to more or less go off grid from forums and such.

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone for a great time on this forum. It was nice visiting it now and then.

Bye! 

Nice to have you around, sir.  You're always welcome back.

[von Boom]

Take care, Apestrife. Door's always open.

[Colin YNWA]

Apestrife if Helium can come back after however many years its not goodbye its just a hiatas.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Trump's out.  There's at least a glimmer of hope for a Covid vaccine. I'd forgotten what good news felt like.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Today, I found a dead mouse in my kitchen (or galley, I suppose, it being a houseboat).  This is way better than it sounds.

I've had mouse sounds keeping me awake at night for a week, and had to clear mouse droppings off the window sills.  Didn't really want to kill them; it's not the mouse's fault it's a pest; so I bought a sonar repeller.  I saw a mouse casually stroll past it as it was supposedly making sounds that mice can't tolerate.  I bought a humane trap - caught two in one night, and deposited them within the suggested 100 yard perimeter where they won't die of starvation and exposure.  But all the time there were mouse sounds keeping me awake.

So I thought fuck it, I hate doing it, but they'll breed and breed if I don't kill them.  So I bought traps and was setting them when I spotted the abovementioned corpse.  There was a foil pack of disprin nearby - I suspect it poisoned itself.

Now there are no mouse sounds.  It seems there was only one, and it just came back when I got rid of it.  And now it's dead, and my hands are clean.  And I've learned something - sonar repellers aren't worth a shite, and there's no real humane way of using a humane trap.

[The Legendary Shark]

You need a ship's cat, I suppose.