Monstrous...Harvest

 I interrupt my regularly scheduled Monstrous Monday post for our monster harvest we worked on over the weekend.

Long-time readers will know that my wife has a huge garden. She has over 115 tomato plants and somewhere north of 120 peppers from sweet to super hot. 

We brought in tomatoes, peppers, carrots, garlic, some onions, okra, beans, basil, and even some potatoes. 

We spent Sunday processing them all.

I processed about 3 gallons of Tomato sauce and we also made tomato soup to freeze.

This was our third harvest this year so far and we have least two more.  With all the picking (and you have to do the weeding then too), processing, and freezing, we hit the couch last night, and both of us crashed.  This was all a lot easier 25 years ago when she started her garden.

Honestly, I should have made a "Tomato Monster" but was too beat.

Now to convince my chef son to make me something will all this garden fresh produce!

#RPGaDay2023 SCARIEST game you've played

 Scares do not come easy to me anymore. I consume horror movies like most people watch sitcoms (and laugh as much), nearly all my non-D&D games are horror and a fair amount of my D&D ones are as well.  So for a game to REALLY scare me, it has to be special. And it is usually NOT due to the rules being used.

Case in point. My online games from 2006 to 2009 that I called "Vacation in Vancouver."  I played it starting with WitchCraft and then moved over to True20 (a game not known for its horror).

The hook was that members of Vancouver's supernatural community were going missing.  Long story short, there was this entire underground where vampyres, demons, and witches were getting together and engaging in all sorts of lewd sexual acts in exchange for essence.  After a while, even open acts of magic were considered acceptable.

The game, though was not really about sex or even depravity (there was a lot of sexual slavery going on and it was hard to know who was using who), but about addiction and losing yourself.

A couple of characters had to be literally pulled back from the edge.

As a role-playing experience, it was intense.  There was not much combat, to be honest.  Part of that was out of choice (the characters were investigators, not thugs) and part out of necessity (combats online can be dull, even in Unisystem).

The game ended like many others, not with a big finale but gradually dying off.

The mystery of where all the supernaturals were going was solved, but not the one of the demonic sex trafficking. The demons never actually killed anyone. In fact, they seemed to be concerned for the welfare of the Gifted and Lesser Gifted in their "care".  And there were plenty of volunteers for the demons, too, since the exchange of Essence was pleasurable for both (but only humans can 'regenerate' Essence).

There were some very interesting games, though, that came from all of that.  It was one of those rare RPG moments where the bad guys might have won, and there was nothing the PCs/Cast could do about it.  While the game was fun and provided some of the best pure Horror roleplaying I have run in a long time, I am just not sure how it could even be revisited.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 8, Room 28

 This cave area continues on and opens up to a large area.

This cave is huge and the ceiling extends up and far out of sight.

There are several thousand bats that are scared off of any light source. They do not attack, but can still frighten the characters.

#RPGaDay2023 Game you'd like a new EDITION of...

 This is a two-fer for me. There are two games I want to see a new edition of and I hope that once again they are the same system.

I would love to see a new edition of Mutants & Masterminds AND a new edition of a DC Comics RPG.

I started with M&M back in 2nd Edition and I loved it. Such a great game.

When 3rd Edition came out I grabbed the PDFs right away and was going to pick up the print versions, but Green Ronin also had released the DC Adventures game that used the same M&M 3rd edition system. So I got all of those books.

I'd love a 4th edition of M&M and wonder if it couldn't move a little closer to their AGE system.

I also want a new DC comics RPG. I know there is a new Marvel game out and yes it looks great, but I have always been more of a DC guy.  I also want to buy more Green Ronin stuff.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 8, Room 27

The bottom of this staircase opens to a chamber in a cave. The cave continues on, but to the right is a stone structure.

The structure is a mausoleum of seven gnome thanes.

The tombs are ornate but have been pillaged many times over the centuries. 

 There is no treasure and no undead here. 

#RPGaDay2023 Favourite CHARACTER SHEET

 Like games and dice I have a few favorite character sheets.  Though I will admit my all time favorite is a blank sheet. because at that point the potential is limitless!

My "Willow & Tara RPG" sheet. I made this one myself for my combined Buffy/WitchCraft/Ghosts of Albion game. It had details for all three games so characters could easily move between the rules.

Likewise, I had a WitchCraft variant I used that also had similar information.

I love Mage, and the Sorcerer's Crusade sheet is one of my favorites.

For pure nostalgia sake I love the Green D&D Basic sheets.

And the AD&D 1st Ed sheets too.

Though my own Witch character sheets are my most favorite of all.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 8, Room 26

 To the right of the giant throne, there is a hidden doorway.  

Beyond the doorway is a flight of stairs going down. Not enough to be another level, but lower in this level.