Messages

1

Hetairos / Test 11 May

« on: Today at 01:21:04 AM »

Had a short test today, of the The World Above scenario. We didn't get that far before my unfortunate test partner had his character eaten by a gryphon, but it was an interesting test all the same. I think I may need to make the chaos in the scenario somewhat greater, a double one (which is what triggers caverns collapsing) isn't a high roll, but that said it's a game where tunnelling is hard so a full tunnel collapse is a big deal. Maybe I need a lesser but more frequent option as well as the current "full collapse".

Also not really sure what to do about the typical-for-the-game scenario where someone at the end of their move just walks into a monster lair or lava flow and gets disembowelled or deep-fried respectively on the spot. In some ways that sort of randomness is a bit of a joy of the game, but if it happens early and nobody can help the player character it can be a bit rough. I think maybe just better and clearer rules for player death might be worth having. Also it's partly that I often play this game with two players rather than the four or five I originally wrote it for, which means in "normal" circumstances another PC is more likely to be in reach to help a player. Maybe I should balance for four characters more heavily and make it such that in two player games the players get a hoplite companion or similar?

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General Gaming - The Arcade / Re: What digital games are you playing?

« on: May 11, 2024, 12:38:42 PM »

I've been starting makign some runs at Hades II: I think I'm about twenty runs into the game now, so I've got as far as the third boss going down and the first going up (which I promise makes sense in-game). In terms of an initial review, it's pretty much exactly the game you'd expect from "Hades II", at least if one has played Hades and has the expectations from that. HII I think expects you to have played Hades and has a slightly higher overall difficulty, a bigger world and more complexity, but I've not found it too overwhelming. If you liked Hades for style, plot, characterisation, etc then you'll probably like Hades II. Will write up more on it when I've got further through I expect.

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General Chatter - The Boozer / May pub - 30th or 31st?

« on: May 11, 2024, 11:51:57 AM »

Any preferences? We're due a Thursday which would make the 30th the right option I think, but I'd be willing to switch to the 31st if people would prefer.

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 11, 2024, 11:23:56 AM »

Isles

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 10, 2024, 01:49:30 PM »

anteater

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 10, 2024, 12:22:39 PM »

evils

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 09, 2024, 11:12:05 PM »

stolen

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Food Discussion - The Jolly Boar Kitchen / Re: What have you been eating?

« on: May 09, 2024, 05:33:52 PM »

Right, an update from me!

I bought some tempeh, partly because I had little idea what temph was and thus to challenge myself to work out what one does with tempeh. I got some mediterranean-herb version of it so it didn't need marinading: the two things I came up with were a fried bread/red pepper/tempeh mix with salad and a sour cream/salt/sumac dip, which worked well, and an olive/red onion/orange/tempeh hot salady thing with garlic bread, which was possibly a more out there idea but also worked.


Whilst I'll have more full things to say on Liechtenstein later, I'm going to share with you the overpriced food here. I perhaps cheekily saved a bit by making my lunches out of the hotel breakfasts (which had the amusing designations of "lactose free milk" and "milk milk" among offered drinks), but the evening meals were about forty euros each which is a lot for what they were. They were nice, and the little Italian restaurant in Vaduz where the owner just walked out and gave me the menu verbally was quite fun, but everything was definitely pricey.

The bottom right meal is not from Liechtenstein, but Konstanz, and besides therefore being better value it's also a more interesting local dish, maultaschen, basically large dumpling-like constructions made of sheets of pasta dough with minced meat inside. Definitely an interesting take on how to combine meat and dough and worth looking out for if one is in Swabia.


And finally, it's been asparagus (Spargel) season here in Austria so as usual I've made some asparagus dishes. I have to say probably the most successful of these was the top right: steaming asparagus above some pasta as it cooked, and then using a mix of sour cream and lemon juice as a sauce, with tomatoes added in and sumac sprinkled on top at the end. Top left is asparagus with speck (tiny bacon bits), and at the bottom is a non-pasta option which can work quite well, wrapping the spears first in some kind of meat (parma ham or similar) and then in pastry and cooking them. It's easy to overcook them doing this, the asparagus may want more brushing in oil or similar than I gave it, but it's a nice meal or good finger-food if there are guests around.

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Food Discussion - The Jolly Boar Kitchen / Re: Kitchen Gardening

« on: May 09, 2024, 05:10:01 PM »

So my gardening this year has an unusual drawback, which is that my decking is collapsing:



As my landlord is a useless arsehole I'm not sure when this will be fixed, it's very frustrating (and somewhat concerning for that matter).

Also, secondarily, most of my plants died over winter: even my fig tree didn't have a very good time of it, and that's a tree! Nonetheless I've bought a bunch of new plants and have planted them out: I've got a couple of cucumbers, a courgette, a tomato, an aubergine, and a pepper, and some new herbs as well (tarragon, rosemary, thyme and oregano).

Here's where things have got to anyhow and we'll see as ever how it goes...


If there's one thing that I have learned from the last few years of plant keeping it is that urban gardening is, whilst often fun, exceptionally inefficient as a way of actually producing food: in an average year I've probably spent ca 40-50EUR on plants to obtain, at a generous average estimate, 5EUR of produce. Economies of scale and better locations make a lot of difference when it comes to plant growth!

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 09, 2024, 04:52:07 PM »

link

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 09, 2024, 10:18:41 AM »

the

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 09, 2024, 09:46:00 AM »

Board

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 08, 2024, 04:00:03 PM »

manager

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 08, 2024, 10:20:45 AM »

power

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Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Word Association

« on: May 07, 2024, 05:21:30 PM »

can