WarKitty's Feline Frenzy Random Banter #216

[Bartmanhomer]

Write a novel.

I'm also writing a Dungeons and Dragons Fan-Fiction story as well. I forgot to mention that.

[Knaight]

I'm also writing a Dungeons and Dragons Fan-Fiction story as well. I forgot to mention that.

Write a real novel.

[Bartmanhomer]

Write a real novel.

I prefer fan-fiction. Thank you.

[FinnLassie]

I second Finn's sentiment.

Ooo, cool build. I like the outdoors look of it.

I may disapprove a little of this family's colour matching choices, though...

It's been too long. WAY TOO LONG!

Thanks! And yeah, had it not been for this specific family (a recently widowed money monger and her two spoiled kids), I would have stayed with the style of the boy's bedroom and the way the kitchen looked. Too tired to re-decorate, though, even though I really want to.

Write a real novel.

There's nothing wrong in writing fanfiction. That's a very rude statement.

[Bartmanhomer]

It's been too long. WAY TOO LONG!

Thanks! And yeah, had it not been for this specific family (a recently widowed money monger and her two spoiled kids), I would have stayed with the style of the boy's bedroom and the way the kitchen looked. Too tired to re-decorate, though, even though I really want to.



There's nothing wrong in writing fanfiction. That's a very rude statement.

Thank you. I couldn't agree with you more.

[90,000]

I prefer Draw Poker.

The moment of tension as the flop unfolds.

I live for it.

[Bartmanhomer]

The moment of tension as the flop unfolds.

I live for it.

I play Texas Hold'em sometimes but I like Draw Power. It better than Texas Hold'em.

[enderlord99]

When it comes to fixed-deck card games (as opposed to collectible ones) I prefer Cripple Mr Onion.

[90,000]

I play Texas Hold'em sometimes but I like Draw Power. It better than Texas Hold'em.

Agree to disagree?

[Aegis J Hyena]

Write a real novel.

I tried. NaNoWriMo. Got 300 pages in total, but only edited 70 (editor oversnarked and knocked me out of my groove).

Come to think of it, the two people I sent it to on this forum never DID get back to me on things! That brings the total of no-responses to... counts... 43.

[Bartmanhomer]

Agree to disagree?

What's your reason why Texas Hold'em is better than Draw Poker.

[FinnLassie]

Phew. Just informed my landlady I'm moving. I'm not obligated to say why, but I thought it'd be nice to update her with the little things (5 years of shared living, gotta get some fresh air). We sometimes chat on the phone anyways when I call about some issue, so eh. She's a really lovely woman, and the next person to live in this room is gonna have a good time.

[Aedilred]

What's your reason why Texas Hold'em is better than Draw Poker.

What do you mean by draw poker? There are a lot of varieties.

Other than simple familiarity, the reason I like Hold'em is that the game visibly and sometimes dramatically changes and develops as a hand goes on, which adds an extra level to the betting. The player who starts with the best hand may not have the best hand after each reveal, which means that players are faced with a fresh decision at every stage of the round, while previous rounds still remain relevant. That the community cards are public also adds an extra dimension, and brings the cards more into play than where the cards are completely private.

However, a lot of it is simple personal preference, and personal preference is often influenced by familiarity. I don't necessarily think one type is objectively superior to another.

[Bartmanhomer]

What do you mean by draw poker? There are a lot of varieties.

Other than simple familiarity, the reason I like Hold'em is that the game visibly and sometimes dramatically changes and develops as a hand goes on, which adds an extra level to the betting. The player who starts with the best hand may not have the best hand after each reveal, which means that players are faced with a fresh decision at every stage of the round, while previous rounds still remain relevant. That the community cards are public also adds an extra dimension, and brings the cards more into play than where the cards are completely private.

However, a lot of it is simple personal preference, and personal preference is often influenced by familiarity. I don't necessarily think one type is objectively superior to another.

Draw Poker objects of the game is that each player get 5 cards in their hand. Each player can discard as many cards as they want and draw the same amount of cards as they discards to get a better hand. It less popular than Texas Hold'em and other poker variations.

[enderlord99]

I wouldn't last long as a secret agent because I grind my teeth in my sleep.

[Bartmanhomer]

I wouldn't last long as a secret agent because I grind my teeth in my sleep.

Speaking of secret agent, I better go hide my plans for World Domination.

[90,000]

I agree with Aedilred.

More tense, exciting gameplay I think.

[enderlord99]

Who here has played Hyperrogue, and what's their record for treasures obtained on a single run? Mine's 107.

[90,000]

Spoiler: Bragging, boasting and otherwise flaunting what I got. You have been warned.

Show

So, I'm crushing university.

Two high distinctions, two distinctions and on one test I scored 100 percent.

I thought I'd do terribly.

Things are looking up.

[enderlord99]

Since gender is apparently "how we express ourselves," does that make "through music" and "with words" examples of genders, or am I missing something?

[90,000]

Everyone hit their eject button at once.

[FinnLassie]

Yesterday I had my last ever class together with my mates...

Feels weird. Still a bunch of uni left, ofc, but not sharing any classes with them ever again... It feels so odd.

[LaZodiac]

Yesterday I had my last ever class together with my mates...

Feels weird. Still a bunch of uni left, ofc, but not sharing any classes with them ever again... It feels so odd.

Ah, the ephemeral weirdness of university friendships. I hope you can stay in touch with the good ones at least.

[WarKitty]

Feeling weird about my career choices.

I got my MA in philosophy with the intention to go on to a PhD and try to get a job in academic philosophy. And I just...look, I love philosophy, but I'm not all that fond of academia anymore. There's a lot of "you have to be the absolute very best there ever was or you're worthless" type of attitude - which as you can imagine isn't the most friendly to those of us with health problems. There's also a pretty terrible job market, which the older I get the less I want to deal with. Of course, when I went into my field, the word was, just get a job in law if it doesn't work out, people always need lawyers. Now the word is don't get a job in law because it's way oversaturated.

So I'm thinking of going back to school, maybe getting a teaching degree. But I still feel really bad about giving up on my dream. And yeah, maybe if I had better grades I'd be more willing to go on - my grades got hit pretty bad by my health issues, and sadly academia is both very competitive and one of those fields where going to a "good school" is a lot more relevant.

I don't know. I just feel like I'm giving up and wasting my time by wanting a career change. I really love philosophy, I just don't like the academic environment and I want some stability.

[Aegis J Hyena]

Spoiler: Game Night at the D&D Table

Show

This one is a long one, so strap yourselves in.

We have five main players. Flynn, The "Bardger" (an anthropomorphic badger Bard), Vance the human Sorcerer/Necromancer, Kazaaj the anthropomorphic cat Rogue, Amber the Dwarf Cleric, and Ayeik, a lizard man Paladin. Based in 3.5E, about 80% homebrew.

I do critical successes and fails on skill checks. Makes for a better story that way and allows for amazing feats in the face of true danger if those 20s come when called.

In a previous episode, Flynn, Kazaaj and Vance had all died under an attack from a high powered anthropomorphic adventuring party because the party "face" (a human fighter who has since left the group because real life and jobs) kicked in the muzzle of a very important animal person. It was done in character (would you be pleased if anthro animals called you chattel?) and I let them live with the consquences of their actions. Enjoying what the Bardger brought to the table, I come to him in the guise of the Tyrannical Darkness as he died -- the satan of his race's deities. It was a classic Devil's Deal. The lives of him and his friends... for a task. Flynn accepts and the three, as a cruel twist by the Tyrannical Darkness, are now Fatebound. If one dies, they all do. If Flynn is not the first to die of the three, it gets worse. Don't ask.

The party has entered a dwarven tomb looking for a mcguffin that will end the Fatebinding. Flynn senses it via a "mysterious pull" from the Tyrannical Darkness. Dispatching cultists of the BBEG's on the way in (whom the party gives no **** about, and have basically said "she can win", because sandbox), they come into a huge dwarven tomb with a lot of important dwarves buried here. In the center of the chamber is a huge altar, dedicated to the dwarven deity... the Black Man, a former dwarven adventurer turned demon. All dwarves are some flavor of evil in my world because of this one dwarf.

It's not racist, I assure you. :P I picked a random nickname when I designed the deities of my realm.

Anyway... Kazaaj explores and triggers a "possession" trap meant to stop greedy tomb robbers, and a spirit possesses him, trying to kill him so it can possess the body and cause mayhem. The spirit forces Kazaaj to walk into a spiked pit, Vance sees the problem, and slaps down a Protection from Evil spell on him. This prevents the spirit from acting, but the shock of the spirit inside him means Kazaaj can't act on his own without a Will save.

Natural 1. Kazaaj falls unconscious from fright.

In the meantime, because they were on this quest to redeem Flynn, Ayeik was putting up with Amber only because they had a common goal (that and Amber is the party healer, because cleric).

So naturally, once everyone sees the altar, they begin fighting over it. Amber wants to protect it because she is a cleric and this is an altar of her god, Ayeik wants to cleanse the place because dwarves are evil, and Vance wants to communicate with the Black Man himself to barter for a soul (personal lore). Someone gets the bright idea to ring the bells in the room, summoning the guards and defenses (skeletons and undead dwarven elites, neither of which were a threat but did bitchslap the paladin a couple times).

During the fighting, Vance brings Kazaaj's limp body to the altar to use him as a physical material connection to the Black Man, because he has massive amounts of ranks in Profession: Necromancy. Ayeik offers to try to cleanse them both at the same time by channeling a Lay on Hands through both altar and Kazaaj.

I allow it, mostly because Rule of Cool and it would be very interesting to see if Amber would get "blamed" for it by the Black Man, making for interesting story hooks later. Vance makes the connection and begins bargaining with the Black Man. Two diplomacy checks (high DC), a Profession (Necromancer) check to keep Kazaaj's spirit "away" from the Black Man by pulling it around like a magnet pulling a piece of metal, and a Bluff check.

The Diplomacy was fine. The Profession check was fine. The Bluff to make himself seem stronger than he was and thus "respectable and not to be harmed"?

Sigh. Natural 1.

Kazaaj's spirit is intact, but the Black Man is pissed, and tries to take his spirit by force. I have Kazaaj make another Will save, since deity-level power isn't going to stop a mortal Protection from Evil spell. He's able to make it if he rolls well.

Yup. Natural 1. Kazaaj's body sits bolt upright on the altar, fully possessed by the Black Man.

As a stone golem emerges from a doorway and the party's pet Grey Render goes to use it for a scratching post (it later ate the party's Pseudodragon), Ayeik begins channeling. The lizard man ain't havin' this! He tries to cleanse Kazaaj and pull him back. I give Ayeik a Will save at high DC to reach out with the aid of the power of his god and pull Kazaaj out of the Black Man's grasp.

Yeah, no. You can guess what was rolled. Ayeik takes about 40 (roughly 80% of his HP) damage from a hefty slap from the Black Man and the connection is all but disrupted. Still there, but weaker than Donald Trump's grip on reality. Vance's left scrambling both for his sanity (Will save, easily made) and the connection.

During all of this, the gods take notice. There's the Tyrannical Darkness, who doesn't want His pawn to die before the task is complete because other plot reasons. There's the Black Man, and this is HIS turf, Amber is sworn to defend Him and His altar! There's some no name deity of the Paladin (which has such a long title I'm not going to repeat it here, I think it's from a video game). Noticing their followers trying to fight for their own ends, the three gods have a good old-fashioned throwdown in the higher spiritual planes.

While channeling the "connection" so Vance can keep trying to get Kazaaj back, Amber walks up to the badly wounded paladin and has Smaug (a Pseudodragon she'd acquired) sting him with his tail. The poor paladin fails the save (not a natural 1, surprisingly) and drops unconscious. Then Amber goes up and kills him in the name of her god before he can break the channel and use another use of Lay on Hands on himself.

Now the Black Man has BOTH Kazaaj and Ayeik's souls because the paladin was channeling, and Vance is fighting for them in his mind's eye / mental landscape / whatever. Vance decides he's had enough of This ****(tm), produces a black pearl from his pack and begins using his Profession (Necromancer) to try to steal back Ayeik's soul. That succeeds as The Tyrannical Darkness blindsides the Black Man and Kazaaj's soul slips out of the Black Man's grasp and back into his mortal body, still unconscious. I decide to roll a d100 for each god because I'm not going to have three deities fight it out and be forced to narrate the entire battle, with the highest roll winning. Victory goes to The Black Man by a single point. The shrine remains His and the other deities are forced to retreat.

At this point the party has backed off and regrouped. While this was going on, Flynn meanwhile is being pulled by the mysterious force, driving him to explore deeper (alone!) trying to find the artifact... and the wizard using it for a demon summoning. If they can get this artifact, it will end the demonic pact and the fatebinding. He goes down a floor invisibly, sneaks past a tribe of hostile lizard men guarding the lower level, and explores, looking for a way to the wizard. He enters a room with "corruption" gas, and fails a few will saves to resist the effects (and the damage). This reduces him to 2 HP, turns one of his feet into a rotten wooden pole, and has poison start dripping from his hands (ADOM fans will understand that one). Oh, and the gas tunnel was a dead end.

He doubles back, barely making the saves, and then burns away some metallic gas in the nearby corridor by use of a Shocking Grasp spell (bards cast as sorcerers in my world but have very limited spells). This both negates the invisibility and turns eyes on him. Turns out the gas burning away dealt damage to the statues along the hallway -- gargoyles meant to trigger only if damaged or if their treasure room nearby was looted. Now they've got him cornered.

I ended it for the night on that note. The Bardger is likely going to die, which will take out Kazaaj and Vance (the latter of which never wanted any of this but a Devil's Deal is a Devil's Deal) with him. Ayeik is dead, Amber is still standing and Vance wants to Fireball (and Summon Monster III) her into next week for killing a fellow party member. The only party members left are Dirigo, (a werewolf druid who tried his HARDEST to keep the peace, I feel sorry for him) and Raxka (Merfolk barbarian with a strength of 14 above the waves but 19+ under them) standing around.

The party is mostly cool with with the situation, as most of them want to roll up new characters anyway and move on to new stories.

So yeah. That was my game night. Four digit EXP awarded to most of the party, though.

[Bartmanhomer]

Today I made a closed Facebook group for only my old school alumni. My friends are my old school really like it so much.

[Inevitability]

I just made my 10000th post on these forums. I'm not sure how to feel about it.

[90,000]

Congratulations!

Hard to believe there's that much to talk about.

[enderlord99]

Who here has played Hyperrogue, and what's their record for treasures obtained on a single run? Mine's 107.

I have not come close to repeating that score, unfortunately.

[Bartmanhomer]

I just made my 10000th post on these forums. I'm not sure how to feel about it.

How can you tell it's your 10,000 post?