ooo, yeah.  I didn't think of that method :)

But yep, since the player is basically controlling a lone magic-user type character (5th Edition Druids are basically spellcasters who can change into animals at Level 2+), I want to encourage them to find other ways than combat to get around enemies.
Bobbie isn't really a 'hack-n-slash' type player anyway, and does prefer the actual in-character interaction with the world, rather than just going all out breaking down doors and kicking butts.  So I've made it clear I'll still give XP for 'defeating' an enemy by any means, whether that be by fighting, or Sneaky Bastard Tactics, or even if they can talk enemies out of opposing them by saying the right thing that would actually appeal to that enemy.
Definite possibilities :)

But yeah, some enemies just need Sneaky Bastard Tactics! ;)

Yeahhh, Sneaky Bastard Tactics all the way >:). I don't even bother with exp, since I don't like feeling restricted to having a certain amount of stuff happen before the player(s) can level up. So I just let them level up when I feel like they've done/achieved enough "stuff", whatever that may be. But yeah, if you're doing exp then for sure let them have it for "winning the encounter", whatever that might entail, as long as the end result amounts to a victory on their part (or at least not a TPK :D) ;). There are also skill challenges too, for the times when an encounter might not be intended to concern any type of combat, such as when there are no enemies but the players are just trying to escape a building before it collapses on their head, or destory a bridge before the advancing enemies get there in half an hour or whatever.

Merry Christmas!

Merry chocolate-eating day! :D
(Well, more than usual I mean!)

Ah yes, happy celebratory mid-Winter-ish time of choccy and presents and whatever else :D.

And now before you know it, it's going ot be new year! So Happy New Year too! :p

Lol yes, happy obligatory celebration of the Earth having completed yet another circuit around its local stellar body :D.

Happy New Orbital Lap!  :D

Hey, hope both your years are going as well as can be expected so far... new current events notwithstanding. Can't believe two months have already shot by.


Since I saw Nym was just by a few days ago, wanted to comment on a DM.com post - yeah, funny, I just happened to be looking through a couple of new posts and with weird timing someone had resurrected a 13 - 14 year old comment of mine? Seemed like something you have to reply to. That's like fate or a sign from the internet gods or something :p

Yeah, bad times.

Major historical once-in-a-lifetime-events seem to be like buses.  You don't see one for ages, then suddenly several of them come along at once!

Really I'm more worried about a very good friend of mine who's not doing well at all.
Bad times.

Wuffy - Lol yeah I saw you post and was like "Omg hey Wuffy!" since I was sure you hadn't posted there for years :D. The reason for me being in here a few days ago, meanwhile, was probably when I was looking up one of Nym's little escapades (most likely the epic window-leap-bandit-nuke-teleport-instead-of-falling incident at the inn early on) to relay it to some people in a Discord server when discussing cool shit we've done in DnD :D.

Swifty - Oh no, that doesn't sound good :(. Covid? Hope it turns out okay.

If we'd have known we'd have probably walked? :(

Whether mental or physical or both I hope your friend pulls through with whatever is going on :( And hope it's your managing to survive all this various stuff mentally too!

Nah, she already had Covid, thanks to the antimasker morons infesting America (we talk online).  Got over it, although she gets out of breath a lot easier now when jogging, suspects it caused permanent (though hopefully minor) lung damage.
Her mum just died of cancer though, left her taking care of the rest of the family (most of them, by her own account are selfish idiots who take advantage of her at every opportunity).  Her partner is also suffering from cancer and is likely to die of that too in time.  And with a family history of it, she's constantly wondering when it'll be her turn.
So yeah, she's just kind of hanging in there right now, seeking reasons to keep going. Not much I can do from over here either.

Me and her have been keeping each other going for some years now.

Bad times :(

Oh, so a situation that would be difficult anyway, without having had Covid nor being hit by lingering effects nor having been mentally exhausted by the reaction to a global pandemic for tw oyears? Eshk, yeah that's... bad times. Well, wishing her continued mental fortitude and some upturn in luck then. And to you for having to goon that journey too :(

Thanks.

Think we all kind of need some luck right now.
The world in general seems to be turning into the backstory of one of those dystopian sci-fi novels I used to like.

Yeah, there's been a lot of shit going on the last few years. I mean, more so than usually, at least within our lifetimes so far - wouldn't have fancied living through the Blitz, for example :P. But at least there's still plenty of good stuff out there too, it's just that some of it has perhaps been a bit overshadowed by the aforementioned piles of shit in recent times.

Random thing...

Just stumbled across this, and immediately thought:  "Nym and Meri!"  :)
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/...4/675/Untitled-1.png

Yup, that seems about the right energy :D

Lol cool :D.

I see you guys are still in physical form and haven't managed to melt yet. Managed to get through yesterday (around 35 degrees) but today will be worse (around 37-38, which can fuck right off :P)...though there is a 40% chance of "light shower" tonight at like 10pm. If that happens it might just be little more than a smattering of drizzle which evaporates in the heat, but we can hope. Also there's now a yellow warning for thunderstorms tomorrow, so yay :D.

I like the heat.  Anyone who uses the shower after me needs to be wary of third-degree burns!
May have been a fire elemental involved in my ancestry somewhere...

Not keen on thunderstorms though.  Already had the power randomly drop out on me yesterday.  I swear the electrical grid substation near me is held together with string and sticky tape.
Really need to get myself a decent UPS, but they're expensive!  :(

Still, if the power goes out, maybe I'll just spend the time trying to photograph lightning bolts.
Always wanted to do that, but never managed to catch one yet.  They unpredictable...

Our power ropped for a couple of minutes on Monday evening, just as I was about to go and do my dinner (in the microwave). At least it didn't last long and was fine after that. Yesterday was urgghhhh, soooo melty and horrible, and so humid in my room in the evening. I did not want to go to bed even though it was gone midnight, because trying to sleep on a bed that is all warm and horrible is just bleh. I had the windows open and had the curtain pulled aside a bit to let a breeze in, then kind of sat near it against the wall for a while to try and cool down :D. It's much cooler now, though. So far it's saying the highest will be 26 degrees today, I think, which at least is far better than yesterday :P.

Probably going to start cooling down sooner or later anyway.  Already got a lot of cloud on the horizon here.

I didn't think we were going to get any days like this.  Summer 2022 has been a bit... damp, up until recently, so assumed summer was cancelled this year due to Tory budget cuts or something.
Not far from Autumn though, so I suspect the heatwave won't last long.

Had my mother down over a long weekend, including the two heatwave days! Given she came from scotland on the coast, that was quite the change of weather :) Managed to survive it by sensibly going to air conditioned places on monday, then being less sensible and travelling to  a nice sheltered pond by train and then hitting travel issues coming back on tuesday. If only they'd repeatedly and loudly warned us in various media about such things as unnecessary travel...

We had a brief change in weather in the evening when mum was travelling back, where it was suddenly very windy and rain splatted down. Needs to make up its mind really :p

Now it's just been off and on humid and sunny them overcast but oppressive. So it goes!

Yeah, just noticed a featured article about it showing up on Wikipedia, of all places.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_European_heat_waves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ed_Kingdom_heat_wave

Seems Scotland (or at least the part I'm in) hasn't seen anywhere near the full force of it.  Didn't think it was that bad :o
This message was last edited by the player at 20:27, Wed 20 July 2022.

Yeah, London almost kept the record at 40.2 for Heathrow but got pipped later on the tuesday by coningsby. Also I'm not saying london burned to the ground but the news sure made it sound like it at times :p

So I'm just far enough away to get a=only amber warnings but close enough to have gotten a decent percentage of that sort of weather, and also on the fringes of the rail travel. Poor mum bounced back through london, luckily on the tuesday evening and on the bus which seemed to have not beenaffectedas much.