Admin, OOC, and Launch Discussion

He did post, Here but nothing since then.

Sorry to see you go Tsavo.

Sorry, Ez. I'm not buying into the torch as a sort of flaming club or regular off-hand weapon, especially not at 1d4 damage with +5 Finesse DEX adjustment.

Could argue it is an Improvised Weapon, but if so would need to be made at Disadvantage.

I'm throwing in 2 points damage this time to keep the flow, but in Asshole DM Realism going forward I don't think I can support it being a stand-in viable secondary weapon on a regular basis.

We could talk more about it later if we need to frame out some ad-hoc numbers for use of torches for hits or maybe singe burning people, but I think the damage will be minimal and would risk breakage or loss of the flame.

I'm fully aware it sucks though. Kray got shafted pinning down an arm and thereby losing another damage generator. This crowd is big on using both hands in combat, either dual wielding or two-hand weapons. Makes perfect sense, so it's understandable no one wants to manage lights.

At the same time, in real battle light and visibility is one of the main influencers on effectiveness, maintaining unit control, and having clarity of what is going on in the already confusing fog of war. I suppose I'm trying to capture some of that feeling here in the narrative and mapping. So lighting is a cost leveled against offense, but it's also a necessary investment that just might keep everything from unraveling to total loss.

I had a funny thought about it. There used to be in the old AD&D books somewhere a list of servants and workers that you could hire, with their daily cost provided to the side. One of the cheapest was "torch bearer". I may be wrong about this, but I think their salary was 1 cp/day. I'm pretty sure now that they were kind of intended to be little dorks in tights walking around the castle lighting the way for the king or escorting the lady from the stables into the house or something. But we had other plans on how to use these bargain workers.

I remember in the old days of dungeon crawl fucking death world D&D in junior high, we would tell our asshole DM that we hired a 6-pack or maybe a 10-pack of torchbearers who were walking through the dungeon with us to light the way so we could fight. We didn't know their names. No story about them. They just stood around like light posts on the perimeter. Stayed there no matter how dangerous it got or how hard it was to get to these crazy underground locations with the party. Just keep bearing that fucking torch, bro.

Every now and again the DM would say one got killed. We didn't care or think much about it. That's why we had contracted out 6 of them, in anticipation of some loss here and there. No big deal. And the other torchbearers - no big deal to them either when their mates got snuffed out by a Beholder or fell down into a pit of spikes. They just kept standing there at next scene, holding the torch obediently. Those guys were happy to get their 1 cp / day.

As we got more sophisticated that seemed ridiculous of course. But then...30 years later...the Torchbearer Contracting Program sounds like a pretty badass SOP if I do say so myself.

J-Rule

Was going for the improvised weapon. Swing and a miss.

Players' Club,

If you haven't gotten a post in for Round 4, I'd ask that you try to get something on today or early during the work week.

Yes, I'm busting balls a little bit. I know. But I'm trying to keep our momentum so that there isn't a 1-week waiting gap between those who post early in each game round before they can post again due to extended delay by the rest of us (myself included on this NPC/monster mob).

And here's this too: What do y'all think we should do about comms with Jabes? On his absence, I think I'm officially shifting over from purposefully blowing it off to genuine RL concern. I can't shake it that he wrote that entry about migraine headaches right before he went total MIA. Am I paranoid?

Not at all. It's not like Jabes.

For those of you who haven't posted, c'mon fellas. We're waiting on you.

I have emailed Jabes at what I presume is his gaming email address (jabes.plays.rpgs@gmail.com or something like that) and DM'd him on discord. No responses on either, which is consistent with just simply not checking in on gaming stuff (for any reason).

The thing that really worries me was the offhand image joke about migraines and no mention of anything else form his own text. I know he gets fully absorbed into work when it gets busy, but it's hard to imagine he hasn't tried to spare a moment to check in on GP for a month now.

For me, personally, the migraines thing eats at me because I had a friend that started getting migraines that turned out to be a brain tumor. (He had it removed and is cured now.) That experience left me sensitive to migraines, despite that it's probably the only time that will ever happen to anyone I know.

Damn. You're right.

Here's what the debate boils down to for me, and it's controversial: When does it become the right time to break the RL/GL barrier and write or call the cake shop to find out if he is fucking ok or not?

Brewer, you are the one who should do it if we need to. Or maybe it should be Len.
Len or Naatkinson both, they haven't heard anything from him either, I asked them. And they are pretty close.

Yes hopefully he’s oK.

I stopped getting email notifications for whatever reason and I didn’t do a manual refresh so, sorry for not posting.

Hell, yeah.

Sorry, like Oxbox, I've stopped receiving emails. Sadly, I don't have the time to actively sit on the refresh binge checking in on active posts anymore and use the email as a Navi 'hey, listen'. I figured it was just a Weekend GP slow down.

I've been concerned with Jabes and, with all the collective worries going around in here, I finally went to his cake site. It was nice to look at but too confusing for my primitive brain, so I went to his instagram and face book, last media posts 12/5 & 12/13 respectively. Not a sure sign but it seems like a hopeful one. Knock on wood and fingers cross that it's just the holidays.

I heard back from Jabes. He's having a hard time with depression currently and has been out of commission. His wife is running everything in the cake shop while he takes time to get through it.

Damn. I hope he pulls through.

Well depression is bad news, but the good news is he's still fighting it out. I can sympathize with that. I won't go on and on, but I'm on record saying that this time of year is a fucking strain, bros. Talk about a headache - keeping everybody happy during Christmas and end of the year? Yeah. Migraine for sure - I'm feeling it.

J-Scrooge
Test me.

PS. YO, JABES!!! MUCH LOVE FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE!!! Stay at it, man.

I can't say how happy I am to have such great success with the bull shove. So good.

Wow J, that's a lot of writing! You're like a one man army.

Ha! I'm looking forward to each and every death of these NPCs/Monsters like never before - so I can down shift on writing! This is a crazy scene, y'all.

On that note, Round 5 will wrap today (Sunday). If you haven't gotten R5 entries in yet, please do. By evening I'm going to shift things one way or another to Round 6 and we'll probably leave it at that for the Christmas week.

J-Drive

Players' Club, sorry - I accidently locked Ep 2 thread by mistake. Corrected now.
People are like, "Damn, J. You bust our balls for not posting then you lock us out. WTF, bro?!"
My fault.

Dark Holidays: Practice of the Traditions

On Ep2, we downshift to whatever speed all of us can handle for this week, fellas. Any game activity is welcomed, but no obligations.

I'm hosting extended family tonight/tomorrow then on travel some later in the week. Intermittent availability for gaming.
Probably re-stabilizing on Friday, 28 Dec.

Merry Christmas, DT Players' Club. Our SECOND Christmas interlude. Respect that, right? Hell yeah.

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus. All hail early Catholics for high-jacking pagan calendar events and delivering worldwide cultural effects for millennia. Impressive? I say yes. Controversial? Of course yes.

Best wishes to all of you guys and your families.

I'm raising a glass during the festivities, Jabes. To your good health first and to your return to DT second.

Glass raised to you also, Jabes.

This Canadian heathen is wishing you all a happy Christmas!