It turns out that if you are upgrading your pkgsrc packages in a
sandbox you really need to make sure that the home directory of the
user you are using exists in the sandbox, if you use any packages that
have a file:configure script that checks for mcs, since mono hangs
if it can't use the home directory. Ugh.
This is 2nd book in the trilogy that concludes Drake's The
Lord of the Isles series. I've really enjoyed this series because
of the interesting characters, interesting setting, and interesting
magic.
So, one of the things L.B. really wanted to do this winter vacation
was play Toon with the kids. Unfortunately, since I'd been so bad
about getting things prepared and even worse getting things scheduled,
we almost didn't get to play. We did get to play a short Toon
session, though, while visiting C.P.B., my older brother, and his
family.
The roster was:
L.B., I think playing a chocolate loving bear
C.P.B. and M.B., playing an elf named Ralph
D.B., playing a hovering suit of plate armor
Toon, as an inherently comic game, is hard for me to prepare and run.
Luckily, it has a very useful “Adventure Generator”, and I had used it
earlier to get some general ideas, and I wrote a few paragraphs in my
notebook about them and picked and adapted some characters from the many
NPCs in the Toon rulebook. When we finally got around to playing we
didn't have time to create new PCs, so I just passed out some old
character sheets, and they all picked toons they'd created in earlier
sessions, and away we went. I pretty much improvised on the stuff
from my notebooks, and the kids seemed to have fun.
I haven't been able to get in as much gaming this holiday season as
either I or the kids would have liked, largely because I haven't been
able to prepare things. However, we did get to play through part of
the Triple Ace Games free adventure “The Tale of the Fabulous Four”.
Luckily, there were actually six pre-generated characters supplied,
since there were actually six kids playing. It's set in Boston in
1915 and is about a bunch of kids who overhear some criminals planning
to steal a diamond and decide to thwart them.
Attending
L.B. playing Nancy Hestletwain
T.A. playing Lucius Munroe
E.A. playing Samantha Hardcastle
M.A. playing Oscar Whitfield
T.B. playing Arthur Abrahams
O.B. playing Brent Hardcastle
Actual Play
We played through Act 1 and Act 2, though I compressed much of Act 2
because we had a very limited amount of time for the session; I
skipped Scene 3 entirely, and wrapped things up completely
differently.
I was definitely off my game, and six screaming kids didn't help
things — for some reason I had more trouble keeping them settled down
and on track than usual.
There were some good moments, though, and I think the kids had fun.
As for the adventure itself, I had a few problems with it. I suspect
that if I'd had more time to adapt it things would have gone better.
Oh well.
We'll probably finish this off this summer, when T.B. and O.B. are
back visiting.
Farming As I Have Known It: 60 Years in Central Appalachia, by
S. Thomas Bond, copyright 2007; first edition.
This book, on farming and farm life, was written by my father over
10 years in his spare time, and is an absolutely fascinating look at
farming from the era of my great-grandparents and grandparents
through to the present day.
Although I grew up on a working farm and spent most of my time
before I graduated from college working on it, I was never as deeply
involved with farming as my father, something I now regret deeply.
This book gives a very good idea of the determination, hard work and
deep thought required to build and keep a family farm in West
Virginia.
Dad had copies of this printed and some of them were Christmas
presents for us for 2008.
The Mint, by T. E. Lawrence, aka John Hume Ross, aka T. E. Shaw;
copyright 1935, 1955 by Doubleday & Company, Inc; first published
in Norton Library 1963 by arrangement with Doubleday & Company,
Inc; ISBN: 978-0-393-00196-9.
Interesting and quite different than Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
Another enjoyable entry in Harrison's Books of the Hollows series.
About
Lacking Natural Simplicity is one, not particularly flattering,
definition of sophisticated.
This blog chronicles my journey through our at times too complicated
and sophisticated world.
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