Reflections
It’s been a busy month. Busier than I originally thought it would have been. I’m still trying to find a good balance between doing things for myself and sharing an experience with friends. A good amount of media I consumed this month was because I wanted to spend time with friends. Primarily books and games. I wanted to take the time to read books they recommend so we can have a shared experience and express our views despite how different they can be.
It’s funny, despite being older I still find myself internally struggling with these types of thoughts. It’s probably cause I do enjoy both having a shared experience and doing stuff for my own wants. I want to do both, but i have definitely tip the balance more in that shared experience for September. More than half the books I read were to talk about with a friend, and a lot of my time has been taken by these game campaigns. It’s still something i’m chewing on. That’s enough reflections for now. Onward to recreations.
Recreations
Miniatures
I started a Necromunda campaign. There’s only two of us doing a Dominion campaign from the Core Rulebook. I’ve started putting out battle reports on our matches. Whenever schedule a game , I also schedule the report of the previous battle to be posted at the same time. I have found recapping the 1-2 hour skirmish battles to be a fun writing exercise. I was planning to do something similar for my Fabula Ultima game. That writing project is still in the works. Apparently recapping four hours of a Tabletop RPG session is harder and more time consuming. Oddly enough my notes for a Necromunda session are way more detailed than the ones for my campaign. Speaking of…
Tabletop Role Playing Games
My Fabula Ultima campaign is still going well! We have been trying to adhere to the rule that as long as two people show up, we play on. Especially entering October, this is a busy time for some of us. Then there’s the holiday season shortly after. Got to make the time we have count.
I finished reading Call of Cthulhu’s The Order of the Strone by Jared Twing, Lynne Hardy, and Paul Fricker. It’s been placed on my list of campaign’s I want to run. I will have to discuss with my players how lethal and action pack our game should be if we do go through it. With that book done, I can follow the rule I set up for myself: “Once I Finish an RPG book. I can pick up another,” When I went to my friendly local game shop, I decided to pick up Starfinder’s Murder at Metal City. The title alone got me interested; I’m a sucked for mystery games. I also picked up Daggerheart. Coriolis The Great Dark, Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves 2 – Carcosa Manifest. It’s a loose rule.
I haven’t written much about my Mutant Year Zero Campaign. It’s hasn’t stopped; I’m just bad at note taking and trying to write recaps from memories. This group doesn’t get together as often, and if i don’t write down what’s happen immediately, i may forget it. We had about a 3 week break, and I relied on the GM to give me a quick rundown of what happen last time. It took a moment for my memory finally clicked into place. I have been enjoying the game, and I think i might have a few things to post soon about the game. It will depend on how quick I can get through Phil Collin’s Discography.
Books:
I read the Necromunda’s Core Rulebook. Yes, this month has been a lot of Necromunda. The lore of Necromunda has interested me enough to pick up more gangs. Particularly, the Genestealer gang and the Bastion of Law. I have been going through one hell of a trip on Necromunda and hope to get my thoughts out soon on all the miniature games that I’ve played from GW. In my notes during my first skirmish battle of the game, it reads “Necromunda has been agonizing, I can’t wait to play it again”
I also read the Rivers of London Graphic Comic “Body Work” that is a fun side step in the River’s of London world with it’s Magical Realism, and haunted cars.
I finished reading through The Elements of Style Fourth Edition by E.B. White & William Strunk Jr. A book in Stephen King’s On Writing that I decide to pick up to improve my writing. The book has been fully tabbed with sticky notes. My notebook is filled with things that I should be aware of and things to improve on. I want to do another reading when the new year comes as a refresher. I hope to look back through these posts if my writing has evolved.
Videos/movies and other stuff I enjoyed for the month as well:
The new series of Taskmaster has came out! Series 20! While it doesn’t feel as chaotic as series 19, it does have a vibe of 3 creative weirdos, the old one, and one who’s northern. At time of writing this, it has only been out for four weeks. I’m have a feeling Maise will win, though I could see Reece and Ana pulling the win out of nowhere. The first task is a lot of fun and kicks off the series with a bang! Also Phil is such a lovely but weird contestant.
In terms of Music, I recommend Tim Minchin’s “Not Perfect”. Every time I hear the song, i feel the need to shed a tear. It’s a both sad yet motivating song to continue pushing through whatever problems come at me.
Years ago, in the middle of the night, I had to drive long strips of highway and empty roads. My eyes would slowly flicker before easing into the embrace of sleep and the soft movement of the car drifting. Waking up only when it hit the bumps in the streets that were installed to warn drivers of their lanes. I remember forcing my AC to transport me to a freezer, trying to force myself awake. Even then I was left alone with my thoughts that help call for sleep embrace. I needed something to keep me up. I would pull to the side, and set up my Spotify queue. The album that was on rotation for a long time was Vessel by Twenty-One Pilots. I was able to sing along with “House of Gold” and “Car Radio”. I let the whole album play through, then let it repeat. Hands down one of my favorite bands and albums in 2013. I’ve kept an eye on Twenty One Pilots since then, I liked Blurryface. I was alright with Scaled and Icy. it’s going to be hard to replace the nostalgia I have for Vessel, but their latest album Breach gets damn near close. Big recommend.
Out of the Blue by Electric Light Orchestra, the first half I found okay, the second half was an amazing journey. Mr. Blue Sky may be a great single, though it gets even better when in context with the album.
Finally podcasts, I found out that Wizard of the Coast also puts out their Magic the Gathering stories in podcast format to be read out loud along with a companion episode to discuss the story. I went through listening to Murders at Karlov Manor storyline. Like I said, sucker for Murder Myseries. This was also my first time diving into the Magic the Gathering stories, though I got so sucked in that I also picked up Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica source book for Dungeons and Dragons. Also like i said, Loose rule.
That’s all for now, I’ll coming back with a bit of more R&R when October ends.
A Stray Blog 
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