Ciarán O'Brien @Sarklor@tabletop.social

I was interested in the upcoming Outriders, despite the terrible dialogue in the advertising. But the demo is... quite fashy? That's not encouraging me.

Finally got around to writing up last week's Coriolis session. Between crippling depression, work and DDOS attacks on my website's providers, it has been HARD to actually get the blog up.

https://sarklor.ie/blag/2021/02/25/trade-war-blues/

Hah, there's a mod that plays sound on natural 20s. I wonder can I figure out how it works and modify it for Alien panic rolls...

Messing about with the Foundry VTT. Seems pretty comprehensive. WFRP and ALIEN are well integrated, hope to do a quick game this weekend to see if its as smooth online with 6 players logged in.

"Sadly, while we determined that user JEW_HATER88's tweets about ethnic cleansing did not violate our terms of service, your suggestion that a reporter punch a politician for lying is very definitely a death threat, and so we have locked your account. We take Twitter safety very seriously :)"

I found one of the unfinished biomes in Valheim. "The Mistlands". Those webs are *everywhere* so even though there's nothing there, I'm not bloody landing on that...

Writing would be a lot easier if my government wasn't busy prolonging the misery of this fucking pandemic for the sake of a few rich assholes.

I'm *really* enjoying Valheim. It ignores a lot of frustrating tropes in survival crafting. All your gear free to repair, you only have to hold a material to learn recipes for it, and it has a Morrowind skill system where you get good at something by practicing. The boss fights are metal af. Resources are plentiful.

And as you can see the lighting and weather effects are *amazing*. I think there's a lot to be said for low-poly art, well directed, and backed up with good atmosphere. Really fun.

Tabletop Simulator is half price on Steam today. I gotta say it's one of the better ways to recreate the "gathered round a table" experience. And there are enough mods out there to let you play just about anything from wargames to MtG to a load of TTRPGs. Worth checking out, if you miss games with friends.

At last, both first drafts submitted.

The energy involved in this RPG writing work is so different to when I was up late doing bioinformatics or writing a paper. There's a *satisfaction* that I didn't realise I never got out of academic research.

I mean it helps having a boss who actually gives a fuck about my mental health but it's more than just that. I was a damn good scientist but... fuck, what a waste of my life.

I think I'm obsessed with virtual tabletops lately. This one looks promising, looking forward to seeing what it can do

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lets-role/lets-role-an-immersive-and-easy-to-use-virtual-tabletop/description

Might as well recount the session while it's still fresh in my head. Published adventure "The Dying Ship"!

Mystery! Heroism! A Man Getting Sick in Zero Gravity! All this and more from the first episode of my campaign for Coriolis: The Third Horizon!

https://sarklor.ie/blag/2021/02/05/the-gang-gets-a-job/

Can I get another 3K words done tomorrow before close of business? This dangerous cocktail of caffeinated beverages and 8% beer says: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oop, my mistake. I already submitted another 3K piece so I've only 5K to go. Oh yeah, I can do this.

Whew. Another thousand words. I *think* they're pretty good words. I need another 8K done by Friday, which isn't *ideal* but I do have enough ideas to make up those numbers so at least I'm not stuck for something to write which is definitely good.

Depression is such a jerk when you have a deadline. Whole weeks where writing was just an impossible task. I'm close to finishing this though, and then it's time for a nice little break.