Anim07734

If you're playing digitally or don't want to track down hex paper, Inkarnate has a good area map option you can add hexes too. My map below was made entirely with their free assets. I actually did this a couple weeks back for one of my campaigns (and really need to sit down and do the same for the other campaign; so far I've just been making it up as I go based on the world map). I don't have a defined "dungeon" because the campaign started with the starting town of Joyildi being destroyed, so now the party has to decide where to lead the survivors while avoiding their attackers. I've got 3 other small towns and a bunch of scattered farmsteads; a couple ruins, if they want to explore; and enough terrain I can add stuff for them to find later. I went with 5mi hexes to give more area while still providing enough detail for decision making; for reference, each of the towns is 2.5-3 days travel by road.

My brother and I started playing during middle school in the mid-90's, and while it's had several upgrades and retcons, our World is a living place shaped by events of previous campaigns. And yes, I just call it World, because it's the most realistic name I could think of; it compares favorably with the IRL planet of "dirt." Now that we're posting info online and sharing it outside our immediate players, we've decided to name the main continent Omneth. My current map is here (created using Inkarnayt's free version). And I'm running with custom races, gods, and a very rough draft of what I'm calling Homelands (intended as an addition to the current race, class, and background system to further differentiate characters). Part of what I hope to accomplish this challenge is fleshing out these Homelands enough to start playtesting them, so I'll link that doc when it's ready for critique. The other two docs are open for comments and criticism, since that helps me continue refining them and figure out what information needs to be included. The races doc is a complete list of the playable species, but some are missing descriptions and most need more added, if I can figure out what's missing. The gods doc only has the major gods and a handful of others I've developed for campaigns over the years; they all need a lot more information, especially the ones that are just a name and title. To keep from cluttering this thread too much, both docs have comments turned on, for anyone interested. In one of my last games, the party decided to found a "monster" nation to protect their people (orcs, goblins, giants, etc) from the paladins of the Sepran Empire, which led to a major war through the foothills between the Northern and Southern Mountains. Both of my current games are dealing with the results of those actions, roughly 10 years in world later. The first is based in the trade-city of Anderssted, which is doing its best to protect and shelter its people (and an ever increasing number of refugees) from the war as winter arrives. The party initially formed in answer to a call for heroes to solve problems beyond the town guards' abilities, but having proven themselves in several quests, are going to be trusted with increasing responsibilities and authority. However, the party is much more self-serving and anti-government than most of the city realizes, so I'm interested to see where they go with it. The second game just finished their "prologue" adventure where their middle-of-nowhere, 100-person village was destroyed by unknown attackers. They managed to save some of the villagers, but now have to decide what to do next. One of the players started as a higher level "trojan" character for me to kill during the attack, with the plan to take over her apprentice afterwards. But the dice decided to let the mentor live, so she's now in a coma, as another plot hook to figuring out who the attackers were and what they were doing. Both of the games are very sandbox/free-form, so I just have ideas for what's going on in the background, and depending on what the party decides, they may or may not find out what some of that is.

I'm currently running 2 different games in the world I've been building for almost 25years, so I won't be following the Gygax challenge, but I would like to tag along and share the worldbuilding motivation. My accomplishment for today was building the minibosses my Wednesday group might encounter this week; a pair of bandit captains who have taken over an outlying fortress as a base of operations. The local baron is going to offer the party titles and ownership of the fort in exchange for clearing out the bandits and protecting the nearby road. But I'm hoping the bandits will live long enough to make a counter offer: let us live and we'll only raid outside of your territory and give you a share of the loot. This party is much more "protagonist" than "hero," so I want to see what they do. So may I present: Umei Sharpwill, dragonborn thief/battle master and Isis Giantblood, hill giant rogue/tempest cleric Both images from Will-E-H on deviantart

Finally got Speedy's new tank finished, so yesterday's workout was removing the old one and putting the new one in place. She's still not sure if she likes it, but it's growing on her.

You mean the greatest gun ever made? I'm working a couple programs looking into upgrades/modernization for it. Someone in my office also does the final acceptance testing on every ammo lot made for the GAU-8 before the purchase is finalized.

I've been keeping busy with life. All my "workouts" last week were moving ammo for a test at work (I do gun and ammunition testing for the USAF), so I managed to stay active in spite of 9-10hr days. Then last weekend was a lot of driving visiting friends for their baby shower. Mando costumes have been put on hold, as there's no way to finish them and all the others we want to do next month. So we need to finish our fancy Dr Who inspired outfits (TARDIS dress for the wife and cyberman shirt and vest for me), repair my anthro knight (while deciding what the character actually is), make some touch-ups to the wife's foxgirl huntress, and do upgrades to our Aragorn and Arwen costumes (replacing Mandos). I also need to hurry up and finish Speedy's new enclosure since she officially won't fit in her old cave and the new one is too big for the old tank. Weather hasn't been cooperating, so I'm going to have to clear space inside to put on the final silicone seal for it's 24hr dry time. But as you can see, she barely fits and has started dragging her cave around the tank and getting upset when she can't get back inside to sleep.

Yep, still bad at remembering to update, but here goes: Did my first weigh-in of the year on the 3rd and I had gained back almost everything I managed to lose last year (182# compared to 183# last January). But when I remembered to check this week, I was already down a pound. I'm getting my diet back where I want it (after eating all the holiday treats/desserts, so they can't tempt me anymore...) and making an effort to have healthy-ish snacks available when I get hungry before bed. Also currently trying intermittent fasting by not eating until ~10am each morning and trying to stop by 8pm unless I'm legitimately hungry (not just bored or procrastinating projects). Still trying to maintain the motivation/energy to workout regularly and the weather isn't helping. It keeps going from 40F one day to 70F the next and back; yay, Florida! I've been halfway decent at going for walks after work, but I really need to start strength training again. Most of my free time is currently spent working on costumes for Pensacon in February. Wife and I are making Mandalorian OCs, so the armor is going to take a while, and other costumes also need attention. At this point, we know we can't finish everything we wanted, so we're trying to prioritize the most important parts for each character, while still deciding who those characters are.

Roll20 is a good, free option for online games, though I still stick with Discord for chat during games. I'm currently working on costumes for Pensacon in February, including a Mandalorian heavy gunner: the handle has now been covered to look like bone and I'm waiting on weather to dry out so I can start painting.

As much as I like them, the timing for challenges hasn't been working for me this past year. So for my birthday, I've decided to start a battle log instead. If you've visited any of my past challenges, don't expect much to change here. My goals are all pretty ambiguous and rarely have timelines. I'm also not expecting to be any better about updating, though I will try. So happy Human Nature Day, everyone! Here's hoping this year brings out more of the good parts.

Where did this challenge go? I feel like I lost 3 weeks with no idea what happened during them. Oh well, time to go prep for next challenge.

I'm still here, muddling along. We're flying out to see the in-laws this week/end and hopefully help them figure out how to deal with ongoing medical issues (one of the curveballs I mentioned). So not sure what I'll be doing goal-wise, but I'll continue making healthy-ish decisions.

If Life could quit throwing me curveballs, that would be great... I had been planning to use this challenge to start working towards specific goals again, but I no longer have the time or energy for that, so I'm just going for a hoping for a participation trophy now. So I'll be here, doing healthy-ish things, and hopefully remembering post about them. I'm only a week late starting the challenge, so we'll see how it goes.

This challenge was rough. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but my depression kicked into high gear and I ended up stuck in a downward spiral in my own head. Luckily, my wonderful wife knocked me back out of it, but I'm still recovering. I'll be spending the next week or so figuring out a game plan, then make a new challenge.