Friday Sunny and Rain

As I wound down my Friday, in my PJs (recently washed), I could hear the rain in the downspouts. I had to top-dress the unhappy roses with some mint compost and bone meal. The rain will deliver that treat to the plants, and rain is welcome after a week of unrelenting California skies. With climate change significantly curtailed our precipitation, we are low on snow in the mountains, and any rain now is considered a blessing. It also washes the pollen out of the air (I saw the pine trees were smoking with pollen). It is better here with gray and rain and Oregon Mist.

I am still reading DarkShadow TTRPG stuff and offered to play this light-rules Fantasy game (a mix of DCC and Old School Dungeons & Dragons, but with minimal rules) with Z and others. The rules (all of them) fit in a $59 hardcover, but the starter rules are free or printed for less than $20 printed (including starter characters and basic GM rules) or free in PDF. Yes! I bought the hardcover at Guardian Games Aloha today.

I am tempted to rewrite an adventure or two using this system. But we will see. I will remove the dice rolling for character creation, which implies running the gauntlet/funnel character creation, and make magic rolls two failures to get the punishing result. Some folks like this stuff, but I find there is only so much time to game, and it is best to use it on adventuring rather than character creation or other gaming paperwork.

All interesting to me. We will see if we ever get to DarkShadow. I read more and loved how simple the spells (usually packed with exceptions and rule-busting powers) were.

Before this, I had dinner with Dondrea and Z (and Donna dropped by to say ‘hi’). Dondrea made her Midnight Pasta a quick, delicious dish (with the spaghetti perfectly al dente). That was included with some store-bought excellent artisan bread (I had too many slices), and a Caesar salad was an excellent meal.

The board game Raiders of Scythia has hit the table often. Z likes the resource-building nature combined with a race (like Istanbul and Concordia) and the rolling of dice during raids, which includes planning and pushing your luck. Do you get another crew member, or is it off to Persia to raid and take potentially cripling damage and loss? Or will the other player rush off early, risk it, and get the rewards before you are ready? And which city to raid? Gold? Food? Metal? Wagons? Wise but not foolhardy seems the correct play. The game, while appearing simple, can start to have blood dripping not just on your crew but from your brain as you combine all of this.

I managed to pull ahead about halfway as Dondrea and Z raided with smaller crews, took more damage, and recovered more slowly. I managed to add crew that made raiding easier and safer. Z and Dondrea were only a few points apart, and I was only ten ahead. Anyone’s game. We failed to end the game until we had only two cities left, but that would not impact the scoring.

They enjoyed the game, and Dondrea is always a bit intense learning a game, but lightened up as she started to get the raiding and resourcing model. She was ahead much of the game, and Z’s plans kept getting broken (the difference between two and three players).

Before this, I was at the house, and my Skyrizi (after hours and hours of calls) was delivered. Corwin stopped by with his lunch and watched the self-injection process. I have not had any side effects (so far). I also talked to various medical folks who explained that my insurance plan requires me to drive 43 miles north into Washington State for a CT scan. I will talk to Regence about this on Monday. This is crazy, and I am not doing it.

I stopped by Guardian Games, saw Ron and Jeanne getting a gift, and got more DarkShadow stuff.

Before this, I reheated the chicken thighs and potatoes I had left over from a few days ago for lunch. I ate and watched YouTube videos. Including Battleship New Jersey’s weekly updates on Naval Technology for the new battlecruiser that the Trump administration has started on. This time, they covered the toilet issues on USS Ford and their experience with these new systems on USS Eagle, and what the issues are compared to the systems on ships (still in use) on Battleship New Jersey. It seems that the new system, when it fails, knocks out a whole set of toilets, not just one. This explains, to me, some of the issues in the press.

Before this, I wrote the blog, dressed, and all that. I top-dressed the roses and again learned that when you reach into a rosebush, you will only get about halfway before it stops you, and you bleed through various holes. Every year, this reminder seems necessary. I am not allergic and managed to only be stabbed and not raked by various thorns. My compost is usually from plants, as I do not enjoy covering the rose thorns with various terrible animal germs and infections from the compost, and then injecting myself via those same thorns. I am not dying for a perfect rose! Mint compost today.

I rose with the sunrise and reheated the coffee from the day before. I did discover a cup of now-cold coffee in the microwave, hmmm, and reheated it again and drank it. I hate to throw it away some days.

Thanks for reading.

Note: Scythia and Cyrus the Great are here for those who want to read the ‘Histories’; I am so glad they are now online. Enjoy! The story is made-up, but it’s still soooo gooood.