Category: Livejournal

It is said that the sisters Fate and Chance, at the beginning of the world, threw dice to see who would direct the lives of the ven.

Fate knew the outcome, but Chance got to roll the dice.

(The system below uses d6 pools. Read it. Tell me what you think.)

You must choose whether your character is directed by Fate or Chance. Either way, you will receive (X) Fate or Chance points at the beginning of each game. Players spend Fate and Chance points in different ways.

You may spend a Fate Point to turn two of your dice into “4s.”

You may spend a Chance Point to re-roll two of your dice.

Other mechanics in the game use Fate and Chance Points, but use them in the same way. In other words, the mechanics say “You must spend a F or C Point.” You’ll find them as we go through the book.

I’ve been rather quiet on personal matters lately. For good reason. A lot of people have asked, so let me just give a general update.

Health
Yes, I am sick. Not *cough cough* but something very serious. I’m on two different medications, plus I got a prescription for Prozac. I also have two herniated discs in my back. For that, I have pain killers. Pain killers + Prozac = not much fun. I’m a happy drunk. I’m a lot less happy druggie.

Employment
I quit my job as apartment manager with another apartment manager job lined up. That job fell through at the last moment, leaving me unemployed and without a home. I’m crashing on Cowboy Ron’s couch for the time being. Not exactly the best thing in the world for my back (or my state of mind), but friendly charity goes a long way to restoring my faith in humanity.

Moolah
As for cash, etc.: my month of unemployment (while Office Team Temp Agency found me a job) was hurtful on the bank roll. I ran out of cash. I was already short due to the blatant lies my previous employer told me about raises and being without a job for a month didn’t help. I fell way behind on everything. I couldn’t afford car payments, insurance, my medication, my credit cards, gas, my phone, or anything else. December and January were cold months in more ways than one.

Writing
Needless to say, massive depression, no space of my own and mounting debt are not beneficial to the creative process. Writing has suffered. Because I’ve recently started temping again, the writing has started again. My own little space with tiny little jobs that take me 1/10th of the time they expect gives me all the time in the world to sit down with a legal pad and just write. Transcription when I get home. 7,000 words in two days. Just like old times.

Moving
I’ve been talking a lot about moving out of Los Angeles. Yeah, I’m 99% certain I’ll be doing that. I have to talk to a few more people before I make the final decision, but it looks like I’ll be leaving, at least for a while, in two months.

As for the impact on things like The Awful Lot… I still have to talk to the rest of the band. We’ll see.

Yeah. Doom calls me a dolt. I deserve it.

Jared pointed out to me a thread about us over at www.therpgsite.com. I’ve heard people call it “Gaming’s Answer to Rush Limbaugh.” I figured that was just a bunch of hyperbole and went over to see what was going on.

Jared pointed me at this thread.

I stopped in, made a few comments (I show up on page 10, I think) and quickly smelled what the site was cooking. I excused myself quickly and politely. I have not been back.

My recommendation? It wasn’t hyperbole. It’s rpg.net without moderators. And I’ll not be going back.