Sunday Back to D&D

I rose with my alarm to a darker morning as it was a time-change Sunday (only time-change Monday is worse). I had about six hours of sleep and soon found the coffee and was drinking that quickly while writing the blog. I have stopped using CNN.com for news because they have too many pay articles. The New York Times works for me, and I am visiting BBC or Jerusalem Post website for another perspective.

I noticed that the State of Oregon had deposited my tax refund. I am waiting for the IRS to deposit my payment to bring 2024 to a close. The deposit takes another day to download to Quicken for US Bank. I am usually two days behind on US Bank, but I make it work by putting any checks I write into Quicken to be matched later.

I log into my Federal Reserve Account to ensure it still works. I have $10,000 in old-fashioned savings bonds booked on account in the Fed; these are inflation-adjusted. You can buy a maximum of $10,000 a year. So far, I have not bought more savings bonds as the bonds have a minimum holding period of five years without penalty. The site requires a user (supplied by the Fed), password, and one-time-password (OTP) they send you. All was good, and I was tempted to buy some treasuries, but I resisted. This costs nothing as it is with the Fed and does not use a brokerage, but you must hold them. You would have to sell them on a secondary market (somehow) if you wanted your cash back early. These are all complexities that keep me from using the site.

I wrote the blog for most of the early morning. I was rushed because I had church at 11, and the time difference was dragging on me. I managed to finish around 10, and soon, after a shower, I was dressed in a pride tie, blue sweater vest, gray button-down colored biz shirt, and gray slacks. My weight loss, still at 234 pounds, means my pants are very loose, and my belt is pulled tight. I unplug Air VW the Gray, and head to First United Methodist Church and arrive in surprisingly heavy traffic for a Sunday morning in Beaverton without issue.

There are no ushers, and I take on that responsibility and stand mainly at the back. I walk one person to their car as they are dizzy. The person drives home, and I hear they made it safely. I also did the offering routine by passing the offering plate and was happy my pants did not fall off at the altar when I presented it. While this was not likely to happen, it crossed my mind that it would be the worst possible thing. All was good, and no unplanned exposures.

A long-term member, Pam, gave the traditional sermon on Revelations 2, the letter to the Ephesus church. She reminded us that we must live our beliefs and not leave them at the church service. Like the letter demands of Ephesus, she called us to repent and remember the love we had. Pam’s delivery was excellent and clear and included a few fun stories. Pam is always a pleasure to listen to.

I did not stay late; next, I boarded Air VW the Gray and returned home. There, I made lunch from reheated pasta and Italian-style sausage I had made yesterday. It was excellent. I watched an excellent video on the Battle of the Nile. Deborah called, and we talked for a while.

Aside: I still write ‘Volvo’ here and there and miss the old XC60, which unexpectedly left me with flooding damage. Life’s familiarities are comforting. I then replace the word with ‘VW the Gray’ and am grateful such a suitable replacement was available and inexpensive. I still miss one Air Volvo and spot a Volvo before finding the VW in the parking lot. I did love traveling in Air Volvo. It is missed (the broken car was donated to OPB).

Next, I started Scrivener, created a novel-style project, and began to write the framework for a story I have been thinking about. I wanted to write a fantasy story of a Dungeons and Dragons-like wizard story, using my own thought-up fantasy world and magic system. This would require more organization than my usual Howard story or SciFi writings. I also wanted it to be longer, which meant I would need new tooling or notes.

I did not start with the story, taking my usual approach of starting with some stream-of-consciousness writing and then editing it over and over until I pounded it, blacksmith-like, into a good story with good grammar and not run-of-the-mill descriptive words. Instead, I let Scrivener guide me. I started with character and locations.

Moss and some high-up missing mortar suggest the tower is not new, but most of the cut blocks are in place, and the door, while strongly built, is new and in good repair with new ironwork. The windows are shuttered, with some open, all looking solid, painted green, and well-maintained. A chimney pipe is suspended out a window, and a wisp of smoke suggests it is occupied. Not far away, a privy and a well suggest this is a home, not a defense construction. A garden of vegetables and three fruit-bearing trees support this conclusion. A brook is nearby on a path with a small stone bridge covering the brook, which is overbuilt for the current stream, suggesting spring brings floods.

I am not sure it will help to have this kind of tool, but I am willing to try it. I have been tired this week, and finding the focus and energy for a new project is challenging. Getting tools and starting with the supporting material always worked on figures and model building. I think this will work for me.

I located my 5E Player Handbook on a shelf, got some dice—the ones I bought in New Hampshire for the D&D game I ran in January—and put that in Air VW the Gray. There are new 2024-2025 books. We will likely change to the new rules for the next campaign.

The new rules change some basics, mainly in the D&D 5E style. There is no falling back to 3.5 (super powered min-max’d) or 4 play (paper and pencil video game play). Most of the changes are to prevent combinations from creating min-max’d characters and monsters again (more 5E and less 3.5). There are a few eye-rolling moments from some changes from us long-term players, but it’s not terrible.

I head to M@’s place, and after talking to Deborah, who is headed to bed then, I spend some time catching up with M@. The game board was set up and covered with spiders the size, in scale, of SUVs. Ick! We, being our usual brave selves and down one person (a player was ill), climbed the tower or flew or were dragged up there (my character does not fly or climb in plate armor) and went to fight the main bad guy without stopping for the others. I deleted the details as others will play this…sorry…it was fun!

We rested and then headed to the next challenge. As this is published material, I will not cover much of it. We found the bad guy but still have more to do before facing the would-be ruler of everything, Venca. Venca is a bad guy who appears in the initial release of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in the 1970s. So, yes, we want to defeat him. Something to brag about over beers at a gaming convention.

We face a lower-level challenge that nearly finishes us. It is something that, as a DM and player, I learned: Most adventurer groups have strengths and weaknesses. Some should-be-easy encounters can crush a group while a heavy-hitting bad guy falls in a few rounds. It is hard to predict, and often the DM has to keep a blank look as the players are crushed by something minor. More chances for the DM to tell stories over beer later.

I had switched out a spell that undoes some of this and instead had to rely on other, more expensive spells to fix a few things. I am the cleric, and I undo things and heal things. I am less about blasting and more about making things better for us to win a battle. It was close, and I used up most of my interesting spells. I called to my god as a cleric to return us to full fighting power, made the 18% roll, and zap! We were back.

It was a fun evening, and I felt we had done well, except for the one “easy” encounter. I returned home and upgraded my cleric to his final play form, 20th level (we will play a new campaign soon). We will face the super-charged bad guys in the next game (April 6th).

I also looked at the latest 2024-5 rules for a new character to play. I am torn between returning to warlock with the other pact (Lovecraftian stuff) or a wizard with a healing focus. Both I have played before. The stealing and trap-finding kind of rogue hobbit also interests me, as I have not done that before. We might also play Call of Cthulhu, but M@ has some new material D&D to play (here).

With thoughts of writing a fantasy story and new stories for characters for D&D, I finally turned off the light (how could it be so late? Oh, time change), and I quickly fell asleep. At 2 PDT, I got a call from Mom Wild, who was having a tough night. I tried to talk her down, and I think she calmed down enough to sleep. I had trouble falling back to sleep, and 7:30 rang on my phone too early. It is still dark!