Fuck Elno and his nazi social media platform.
I'm going to keep My Cuneiform Tablets going in a form of my choosing.
Sure, folks can't comment on them now and I don't think I can have an RSS feed of them...but something is better than nothing and work to make it better.
A reverse chronological list of days. Just one entry for now but see above.
Definitely at that point where you see your friends leaving the party and you can definitely see closing time approaching.
You feel you have some stuff still to do but it's not really worth it when the bigots and fascists show up.
Life is change I guess.
All we do is keep going forward and decide to adapt or not.
While I haven't gotten back into blogging, I do want because of this sentiment:
My desire for an internet that is no ads, no monetization, no creepy data collection, and no surveillance is making me thirst for the heady days of 2001. — flotisserie @flotisserie 2:33 PM · May 9, 2022
Write and publish in a place you "own". You can always cross-post to whatever social media platform you want.
You site is "the source of your truth" and should lead folks to it.
This blog is on a Digital Oceani (DO). It's probably the easiest way to stand up something that is your own. I suppose Square Space or Wix are easier.
For cheap, I also use Rack Nerd, Desi VPS nee Los Angeles VPS, and Nearly Free Speech (NFS) with varying degrees of success.
NFS is a bit more friendly to do some things than Rack Nerd or Desi VPS. I haven't run the numbers to make sure that NFS is any cheaper than so DO or the others.
All of that said. Find a place to make your own.
Well, as part of the uproar over Elon Musk buying twitter folks have pointed out the benefits of owning your own domain and such
Thus, me revisiting my blog that I have neglected for a year.
Folks I know and writers have wrote that the habit of writing helps you be a better writer.
Maybe.
If nothing else a year has gone by and I'm still here.
This past Thursday to Sunday, March 25th-28th was the 13 Gary Con.
Gary Con is a gaming convention put on my Luke Gygax and crew to honor his father and creator of Dungeons and Dragons. "To celebrate a life well played" to quote the tag line of the event.
I've been going since Gary Con 6. I have friend that have been going since the first one and even at Gary Con Zero, the impromptu gaming that happened after Gary's wake. The spark of the idea of the convention.
I've been running events since the first one I've attended. I ran Circus Maximus events as qualifiers to get into the Circus Maximus Championship. It was a way for me to get into that without having to race. Tim Kask had been running Circus Maximus for years at Gary Con. Going back to one of the Lake Geneva Gaming Conventions pre-dated Gary Con.
As it turns out I won the Championship in Gary Con 6 and 7. I came close to a third trophy in 8 but alas, I got unlucky at the end. It was after that championship that Tim turned running everything over to me.
In 2017 I added a figure 8 track to the events I ran. I call it Wreckus Maximus.
In 2020 covid 19 changed things and I didn't run any Circus Maximus events. I did run an RPG event however.
Enough about the past.
For this year I wanted to see if it was possible to run them online. A friend pointed me to Vassal. As it turns out it works great.
I submitted 2 regular Circus Maximus events, 1 Wreckus Maximus event, and 1 Hyperborea event. I played in 1 on-grid event.
Thursday my oldest kid and myself Searched for Pantheras. The group was eventually able to find him. I think all of us even survived. It was a fun time and Bryan is a great DM.
I was scheduled to run Circus Maximus. The one person that did register for it decided to jump into the Friday event where there were more racers.
Thursday night I gamed with some folks that get together at the physical con. It was a fun time to hang with folks. We were able to "beat" the scenario rather quickly so we mostly just sat around drinking and chatting with each other.
Friday was a great Circus Maximus run. There were 4 players. The Purple racer mostly kept to the inner lanes of the track and avoided getting into any problems with the other racers. It was pretty close until the start of the final lap.
That is when Blue and Green had their chariots flipped. They then tried to hold on long enough and take minimal damage to try and cross the finish line alive. Alas, they did not. Purple was able to take the final egg and win the race.
I wanted to run Wreckus Maximus ( figure 8 track ) so I created a Vassal module (that I need to resubmit it get in the "approved" module this).
I use the Optional Rules from The General, Volume 17, Issue 5. This gives a way to create more customized teams as well as weapons. So, increased lethality and options for the racers.
I created some pregens so we could get to racing as quickly as possible.
The race is started with the field split.
Half start at the red line on the bottom left, and the other half on the blue line on the bottom right.
This usually creates this nice interaction in the crossover section.
Things are a bit closer than expected. Black and White teams have team speeds of 32! This pregen I labelled "Speed at All Cost".
Blue took "Whip It Good" and Purple took "Small Blades 2".
I forgot that White was going 32(!) in the 28 lane and had to make a flip check. They passed it without any ill effects. This would set the tone for the rest of the race for them.
During this turn Blue tried to lash the White driver. They had the bad luck to have White grab their nice Long Whip.
I don't think Black and Purple did much in their interaction.
Then again, Blue might have lost their whip here.
Regardless, this shows a bit about how fast the White team is and how they can "drift" through the crossover section and stay in the "fast" lanes.
Lots of "just racing" going on here.
A little bit of interaction between Black and Purple.
This was actually a brilliantly bastardish move by Purple.
Black had just got jostled or something so they couldn't strain. Purple drew before Black and positioned themselves such that Black would be forced to change lanes which would cause them to flip.
Instead Black burned endurance, they had 28 movement factors written and had to burn 26 endurance. It was a great bit of racing from both of them.
Another "boring" turn :-)
White is really close to lapping Black here.
I think it helped to have only 4 teams and having 2 teams that are just stupid fast.
Purple rammed Black's cart and if I recall correctly they both damaged each other's wheels.
Blue decided to go to a dead stop in front of White in an effort to frustrate their easy roll to completing their 3 laps.
A lot happened here.
White had to slide in front of Blue, costing 6 movement factors. Consequently, they ended that exact amount from being able to finish the race.
Also, Purple rammed Black's cart again because why not?
Both carts suffered damage! Black's wheel was destroyed causing the flip. Purple only took 2 points of damage but didn't flip.
Black wasn't able to survive to cross the finish line.
White was able to cross the finish line and win. A first for any Wreckus race I've run. At least completing 3 laps in 4 hours.
