#RPGaDay 5

All the questions (1 image)
What stories do your group tell about your character?
Um, I'm not sure. One of the few I can recall is from that same overpowered AD&D game, and the guy who played the paladin talks about threatening my character if she kept throwing area of effect spells (like fireball and snowball) in his area.

Or the same Living Greyhawk character who was 4th level before she made it through an entire combat still conscious. Nadia had a tendency to follow her friends, a paladin and fighter/cleric, into the thick of battle. And she'd get hit a couple times, fall unconscious, the paladin would stabilize her, and then heal her after the fight.

I could ask them what stories they tell. I usually play a support character and such characters rarely shine.

#RPGaDay 3

Question for August 3rd
(all the questions)
 "Character moment you are proudest of"

Not an easy question. There's the moment in Living Greyhawk when my severely underpowered* bard (seriously, the NPC cohort was higher level) broke the module. We knocked out one of the NPCs then she used Fascinate ability and charm to find out all the big bad's plans. That's something that wasn't supposed to be possible, but his save was based on her perform skill and she had that maxed, but a supernaturally high Charisma skill.

*Living Greyhawk was a shared world campaign and usually game sessions were played with characters about the same level. You had to have a minimum of 4 players for a legal table, and a max of 6. I think Nadia was 10th level and the cohort, or NPC follower of one of the PCs, was 12th, or maybe 13th. She was along to make it a legal table, but it was doubtful she'd actually do anything.


Or maybe it was when my (overpowered character for an overpowered game) halfling wizard/illusionist in AD&D so impressed the King under the Mountain that instead of killing her, he let the entire group have the run of his armory, both mundane and magical.

She accidentally found a door and went inside. She saw a huge chest, overflowing with gold, treasure, gems, and art. She saw a massive, obviously magic hammer. She saw an enormous bed, with a commiserate nightstand. Aaaand she saw the mug. She climbed the nightstand and found the stein to be filled to the brim with beer. Well, she was called Cuplifter, so she carefully tilted the mug enough to get a sip. It was wonderful. And the giant in the bed woke up. He looked at her. She looked at him. She said, "Good beer." He was so amused that she ignored all the wealth and headed straight for the beer, and then was boldfaced about admitting it.


Or maybe, it was when my Ironclaw character and another character essentially talked a bandit into going straight. After all, he wasn't a successful bandit. He'd be better off in another line of work. One that wouldn't get him hung.

Happy Holidays

I hope everyone's winter (or summer if you're south of the equator) is going well.
Here are my State Fair entries
The dragon (red ribbon)

And the booties. No ribbon on the booties; wrong category. Except, looking at the categories I can't tell what the right category would be. I've contacted the fair people to elaborate.

I finished my project 365. Now I won't be so 'must take picture today', but I'll still keep my eyes open for picture possibilities.

Dad came to have lunch with on Thanksgiving. We had a lovely, long talk. He showed me the listing for the house he built in 1958. Tiny house, but gorgeous views.

I've made some turtles: see. I'm working on more bracelets.  Here are some I've made.

I finally opened my D&D 5th ed Player's Handbook (aka PHB). It's pretty with a lovely array of images. However, I have one minor caveat; the print used for the index is tiny. On the other hand, it's a good index. I have two greater caveats; no finished or at least partially completed time sheet and the references (as in Chapter 5) refer to chapters and not pages. I mean, great, the rules being referenced are in chapter 5, where in chapter 5? They have good character sheets available on line; including one that's fillable. That's a big plus in my book.

I saw one movie that I did not expect to like, Pitch Perfect. It turned out to be really good; a little predictable plot-wise but I loved the music. The other movie I was glad to catch in the theater; Guardians of the Galaxy. I really enjoyed it.

All Safe

Don't worry. Yes, tornadoes hit nearby but none of them came that close to me. We just had to deal with some heavy wind and rain. There aren't even any fallen branches, big ones, close to my house.

The storm did give me a migraine, but some migraine meds and a nap took care of that. It does mean that I didn't get as much done as I'd planned on Saturday. I did get my oil changed, so that's one thing off my to-do list.

Sunday's game went well. I arrived late (took another nap) but we got through the fight. My character managed to royally peeve an NPC,which was a good thing. He decided that she had to die; instead of breaking her very valuable sword, which was his favorite tactic. He did almost kill her, but one of the other PCs is a paladin with a unicorn mount, which has healing spells. That kept my PC alive long enough to finish the guy off and go help kill the half-fiendish huge displacer beast. I hate mis-chance.

After the game was supper for one of the players. It's about his birthday so we took him to this nice Chinese place (he chose it). His daughter was a bit grumpy, but she'd gotten woken up from a nap.

So Excited

Tonight I finish packing and stay at my friend's house overnight. In the morning, at some excessively early hour, we will leave for Toccoa, Georgia. Why are we going to Toccoa, Georgia? That's where the Palmetto Tat Days is being held this year. It's a longer drive so we have to leave earlier.

Last night, I started preparing. I loaded my shuttles for the two classes that I'm taking (I'm not worried about the two classes with which I am assisting) and one for the Friday night activities. I didn't get enough of my clothes packing done. I got the shirts, etc set aside, but my jeans weren't ready.

Last Sunday's game didn't really happen. Our home Forgotten Realms D&D campaign is going strong but one of the players hurt himself late Saturday and couldn't make it at the last minute. Since his character's nickname is 'Rail Gun' the GM had upgraded the combats to match. Frankly, the rest of our characters wouldn't survive them without him. Our tele-player (thank you Skype & um, whatever our on-line mapper is, I can't believe that I've forgotten the name) took off to get some errands done. The other player stuck around while C, R & I worked on Dresden Files characters. Yes, I play multiple role playing game systems. Don't get me wrong, I love my D&D (although 4th e will never be my best love), but I also enjoy other systems & settings.

They've almost finished our deck, only a few flourishes remain. Now if they'd finish replacing the damaged boards on the walls, I'd be even happier.

We got some much needed rain yesterday. And Hurricane Danielle is far out to the Atlantic and is not predicted to hit North America (not before Monday anyway) so it won't interfere with this weekend's plans.

Light supper last night, just me. Chris was over at his parents helping them move something & of course they fed him. I watched the first episode of Primeval. It looks like a pretty good show.

A few nights ago, I caught part of a later episode, which Chris was watching, while cleaning up the kitchen after supper. (for anyone who’s thinking ‘sexist, the man’s watching tv while the woman works in the kitchen,’ it’s not. It’s whoever didn’t cook, cleans up the kitchen).

Today’s my supervisor’s birthday. We went out to eat at a local eatery. It was a very good burger (I’m donating blood today & need the extra iron) and the sweet potato fries….yum. He doesn’t know that he’s getting a cake, too. It’s surprisingly hard to find birthday cake candles. I found some very colorful ones. Since we don’t have one for every year, we’re doing one color for the number of decades & another color for the single years.

Today, they had a fresh market thing here. I got some locally grown produce, some bean sprouts, a lemon, and a very small apple pie. I also got a reusable bag to carry it. I also will be getting a recipe for a collard dip. I don’t like collards. It’s very un-Southern of me but I just can’t stand them. This dip, very like a spinach dip, I liked.

I finished making the 3^rd 4e character this morning. I need to go back and decide what region to make her home region. I don’t want to make all my characters from the same area. My 1^st two are already from Aglarond.

I’ll be playing a game, maybe 2, of 4e this weekend. So I will finally get to try out the game. I missed the sample game that Chris ran; I think that I was still in Colorado. Or at least in Illinois.

Someone really startled me this morning. It’s raining a bit and I was crossing a side street when I saw, out from under the umbrella, a car swerve, almost like it was about to hit me and pulled aside. It turned out, it was just someone trying to get directions. Luckily, I knew where to find his destination and could point him the right way. And as he drove off, he apologized for scaring me.

Health: I have not been getting enough sleep. I keep going to bed way too late for me. Of course, then I’m exhausted on the weekend. Big surprise, huh.

Gaming: I'’ve created 2 characters in 4e D&D. One’s a half-elf fey-pact warlock & the other is a
dragonborn cleric, both from Aglarond. Rosemary found out something though, so I had to
correct the cleric’s deity. I had her worshipping Bahamut but the dragonborn don'’t really believe that Bahamut is good, they don’t trust him. So one, even one raised by elves, probably wouldn'’t worship him either.

After reading the rituals section (final chapter), I have decided the cleric’s 2nd feat (2nd level). It will have to be skill training. Because as it stands, there’s only one ritual that she can cast at 1st level. There are not any others that she can cast but there is only one 1st level spell that uses Heal, none that use Religion; of the rest, one uses Nature & the rest use Arcane. Guess what skill she’ll get training in at 2nd level. Did you guess Arcane? I knew you would. And you’'d be right.

I think I'’ll make up one character of each ‘type’; defender, leader, striker &
controller. I already have 1 leader & 1 striker. That way, if/when I play Living
Forgotten Realms, I can bring whatever type is needed to the table.

Weather: It's RAINING! Actually it's storming off & on. So far, I've managed to avoid getting soaked. I know at least two people who haven't, avoided getting soaked that is. Hopefully it will soak into the ground and start restoring some of the water table.

tatting: My watch chain broke. I tried to tat a new fob but the thread broke. It's an older thread, that plus my tight tatting and the very large ring was a recipe for disaster.

Work: spreadsheets, spreadsheets, spreadsheets. I am so sick of spreadsheets.

I got very little done today. That's no real surprise. I was so tired, just no energy.

My amazon order came early. It's the stuff that I ordered to get free delivery on Mom's present. I wasn't expecting it 'til Tuesday. That's kind of nice.

I finished creating one 4e character, a half-elf warlock. She might even done correctly. Maybe.

Work: Gaaaaah! The e-timesheet system has been driving me nuts today. It kept giving me 'cannot connect to server' errors. Logging off & back on didn't fix it. Restarting the computer didn't fix. Deleting the browser history does seem to fix it. We'll see if the fix lasts.

My student assistant is back. I immediately dropped a stack of invoices to be mailed into his lap and a notebook of old paperwork to shred into his lap. He does get a couple days without the daily reports because I need to revamp them.

Reading: I finally read a short story in Alyssa Day's Poseidon warriors series. It was in an anthology that I've had for months. I think I'm going to have to go find the first book and read it. Oh. Woe is me. Alas and alack. *snerk*

I've almost finished reading the D&D 4e PHB (for the non-gamer that equals Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition Players Handbook). I'm in the combat section. I really do need to play a game before I can truly judge the system.

I pulled out the calligraphy pen to to work on the rest of Mom's present. And realized that I hadn't washed the nib yet so it won't write. I gave Mom a recycled silk yarn scarf for the first part of her present. It's a very long, rectangle scarf of bright fuschia with bands of other colors at the ends. And one of the stripes matches an outfit that she's wearing to a wedding, so it's perfect timing, too.

I'm sitting in a corner of the student stores, in the bookshop (not textbook) section. It's got a patch of carpet surrounded by comfortable chairs and couches. Everyone is reading or working on their laptop (moi & one other person) and being careful to be quiet. Conversation is in low tones, leave to talk on the cellphone, that sort of thing. It's very pleasant.

Flattered & angry: Someone like the picture of the tatted scrunchy that I made so much, that she swiped it for her own tatting gallery. The funny thing is, if she had asked permission or just given credit/given the source, I wouldn't be upset. I would gladly, thrilled & flattered, have given her permission to use the photo, just asked for a little credit ('tatted by' sort of thing). As soon as I found her address, I sent her a polite email requesting that she remove the image. She does have a nice collection of patterns and she's selling a cd of patterns (from what I can tell) but using my image, without credit, is a form of false advertising I feel.

Family: Tonight I go meet Dad & the stepmom for supper. It's just as well. Chris leaves early tomorrow for Ottercon, with Rosemary, so he's sleeping in Raleigh tonight for an earlier start. I have Dad's Father's Day present, I wrapped it this morning. I used one of the 2007 calendars that I bought for a $1 to wrap it. I arranged it so that the lighthouse image is just off center of the front of the package.

Tatting: I finished the Maltese Ring bookmark this morning, despite a broken hook on one shuttle & running out of thread 1 ring & 2 chains short of the end. The rest of the thread on the shuttles will become the bookmark tassel. I'll try to take a picture & add it to my blog tonight. However, that will be after supper.

Gaming: I've almost finished the 4e character that I made as I read the PHB. She's a half-elf fey pact warlock. I went with the deceptive warlock build; a little stereotypical but not bad.

Per the What D&D Character are you
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Druid/Wizard (3rd/2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-12

Dexterity-11

Constitution-11

Intelligence-14

Wisdom-12

Charisma-13


Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.


Secondary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)



detailed results:
Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (25)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXX (5)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXX (7)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXX (5)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaos --- XXXXXXX (7)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Evil ---- (0)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXX (6)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Orc - XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-8)
Bard ------ (0)
Cleric ---- (0)
Druid ----- XXXXXX (6)
Fighter --- (-2)
Monk ------ (-23)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- XX (2)
Rogue ----- (0)
Sorcerer -- (-2)
Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

I wonder if anyone really reads my posts. This is after all an on-line journal. It's more for my own thoughts and memories than for anyone's perusal. Still, I wonder.

Anyway.

Tatting: I am working on the Workbasket snood again. My first attempt, after 3 rounds, is suitable for a doll and nothing else. It fits quite well over my fingertip. It will nowhere near hold my hair. This time, I'm doing a better job of reading the pattern & looking at the picture. That makes a huge difference. Right now, I'm tatting off the thread on the shuttle. It's not enough for the next round so I'm making some butterflies.

I wanted to join Jane E's Tat It And See but I didn't have a button. I may well try it later.

Mark Myers, aka Tatman, will be in the area in 2 weeks to teach his Jacobean Flower Spray. I need to send my money to the organizer for my share of the costs (including food and his travel).

Books: I am so ashamed. I broke down & bought 4E D&D books.

I've been reading Thrift Score & re-reading old favorites recently. Despite have 3 spiffy birthday books to read, I've been going to standbys instead.

Family: I went to visit Mom this past weekend. I hadn't seen her since April. May was a nuts month for me. She bought me a birthday present, despite the fact that I reminded her that my TomTom was a Christmas/birthday present already. She bought me a couple 1gig thumb drives ($8 at Big Lots) & a hands free earpiece for my phone.

I've been helping her clean out her apartment. She's a child of the Depression and has the hoarding mentality so common in that generation. However, she's come to the realization that she's 70 & will not live long enough to use all that shampoo/soap/etc. So we've been packing up stuff to go to charitable organizations (nursing home, Salvation Army, etc).

Mom's getting older. She got tired after only an hour of sorting and cleaning. The heat may have contributed, as her AC still is not fully functional. Despite all that, we got a lot done.

I talked to Dad on the phone, he called Sunday after I got back home. He & Kathy bought me a case for my TomTom. I've dropped it a couple times; that's why I asked for a case. I don't leave it my car, so it's often going back & forth and risks being dropped again.

Weather: I've been wearing skirts recently. It's been a record setting heat wave, hit the century mark in the heat index and sometimes in actuality. It's too [string of expletives deleted] early for it to be this hot. Even my handfan isn't helping, maybe I should carry a spray bottle.

A self-portrait Christmas card that my father's father's father sent out. He had a mobile photography studio. Dad has some of his blackroom equipment.My father, our dog & me, when I was 4 years old. Come to think of it, that may be my grandparent's dog, and we might have been at their house. I don't really remember it.

I'm trying to add a photo to my profile & I'm trying to decide which one (or maybe a more current picture) to use. Probably the latter, at least I'm in that one.

Had supper with Joe last night (Living Greyhawk Gran March's newest Triad member). We went to Q-shack and talked about the whole end of LG thing. LG ends next year (year 8 of the campaign) so Chris came up with a bunch of 'year 9 adventures'. They were pretty funny.

The end of LG is all part of the D&D 4.0 release (warning link is to YouTube). The company plans to focus on the Forgotten Realms setting instead. My first thought on hearing about 4.0 was: 'well, I know they're trying to make a profit but now they're just money-grubbing'. Frankly, unless it rocks my socks off, I'm not going to bother. My 3.5 books work just fine & I see no reason to convert. Unless the GMs of my home games decide to go that way, I don't have to. My home game GMs feel the same way.

After Qshack (I had the chopped beef brisket, with fried okra & sweet potato fries -leftovers for lunch today), we went to Edy's to get ice cream. I know I should have had the sorbet but frankly, I've been very good about not having ice cream and I really wanted some. It was delicious.

books: I finished Night Shift & Night Shadow last night and sort of re-read part of Rapture in Death. I just wasn't in the mood for it. I celebrated paying off my dentist bill by buying Thirty Nights with a Highlander Husband at lunch. I read through most of it.

I was glad to sit in the bookstore and read. It was way too hot (100F and rising) to sit outside & do anything.

tatting: I'm turning the next to last corner. I did some at supper last night while we talked & tried to do another ring this morning. Just too humid.

Ran into the new neighbor while walking to the bus stop this morning. We talked on the way into work again.

clothes: black ~slippers (I'm having to spray them with febreze every night, they get sopping wet by the time I get home), black & white print cotton gauze skirt, white texture plaid shirt, silver dome ring, silver bracelet, hematite band, labradorite pendant, onyx earrings & braided hair.

silk blouse: Since yesterday's blouse had, for lack of a better term, bleach spots, I decided to make use of them. I tried a tie-bleach job on it. I tied knots in the sleeves & the blouse and dipped it in bleach/water solution. It certainly bled a lot. Now I'm waiting for it to dry & see what happened.

sign of the times: The other day, as I was waiting in line at the Super Target, I noted what they had in the impulse rack. I remember when they had candy, magazines & little dollar books in the impulse rack & that was it. Now you can see: a 32MB flash drive, 257 MB SD card, an iTunes card, phone cards, purell (hand cleaner), and floor care in addition to the candy, gum & magazines.

website of the day: Okay, this information is a year old but it should still outrage people.

Gaming: I hate D&D evangelists. The save DC is based on their perform check & they only need one round to do it. As a result, Kelis (my character) & Deriot (Diana's character) have converted to the worship of the Devourer of Souls. That leaves a badly wounded Gaius & Thorvald plus the real Vertum, who's chained up, to fight us & the 3 bad guys. We finished fighting the undead last night, finally. I couldn't make a save to well, save my character (rolled a 5 & then a 3). But Gaius can use one of Kelis's pearls of power to recall his Resurgence spell & give her another chance. He bluffed that he was healing her but it didn't do much (just the healthful rest boosted lesser vigor that he cast earlier).

Health: When I tried to give blood the other day my blood pressure was 107/74 and my temprature was 97.5F. I should check as to whether those are in the healthy ranges.

Books: I'm going through the Magic Item Compendium to see what stuff looks good for various characters (like a couple whips for Nadia & some anti-undead stuff for Edana & Reed).

I won some books from the Bulls Head yesterday. They had 57 bags of ARCs and the 1st 57 people to respond to the email got a small bag of them; about 5-8 books.

We got news of Kelly last night. She & little Emmit are fine. I sent the bear I bought for Emmit home with Joe since he's more likely to see them before the child is a toddler than I am.

clothes: black socks, loafers, jeans & belt, gold tone belt buckle; my silver ladybug clip watch, white tuxedo shirt (lots of vertical pin tucks), quasi-patchwork vest in black, tan & cream, onyx pendant & earrings, hematite ring, hash mark ring & circle ring. My hair is braided today as it's another windy day.

Gaming: Chris's game last night. We learned a few things, did some investigating. Found some suspicious stuff (like all the law & government for city in military hands over the past year or so..since Vertum's old commander & Kelis's old commander showed up). All the temples to gods of justice have not just been abandoned but have been desecrated, again in the last 5-12 months.
dental appointment is today, this afternoon. I'm dreading it.

books: Read What Price Love by Stephanie Laurens. Continued reading in Pillow Book. I also have 2 Shojo Beat issues to read & Dragonsblood. That's in addition to some books that I borrowed from Steve.

clothes: black from head to toe; loafers, socks, slacks, turtleneck. Then a very colorful open crocheted sweater over the turtleneck; fuschia, teal, orange, purple, kelly & red (with concentric circles of beads to accentuate a few of the crocheted circles). I went ahead & wore 2 hair elastics, black & pink entwined at the end of my braid. For jewelry I'm wearing the same as I did yesterday with the addition of the black stone ring.