Jarric

This is exactly how I feel. I really want to play in that type of survival-horror type setting one day. I really love the layout of your continent. It's really distinctive - I think a lot of fantasy continents are pretty interchangeable but this stands out.

Oh thanks, I like it, though I definitely stole the idea... Well thank you, because I totally stole the idea for it from you . Yours was nicer though. To be honest, this might sound like a cliché but I never feel like I have to go to Crossfit, I'm excited that I get to go to Crossfit. So even if I'm feeling pretty rough I tend to go. Thanks. I'm sure it'll sort itself out eventually. That's interesting, because I wasn't aware the emojis were broken

Yes! I get paid at the end of next week, so maybe if we work towards having a rough plan by then? I would argue this is the best way to drink tea This looks so epic! Take in your own tea? Take in some Yorkshire and you'll be alright.

"Very good to see you around these parts," says the wood elf, seeing his friend approach, "care to join us in creating whole new worlds?" "Oh, I see you've found the best way to drink tea too," he adds, with a wink.

There is a great deal of wisdom in this post.

100% - better to do it and eat afterwards than not do it because you're eating later. Great job on week 0! And sounds like week 1's starting strong too

Monday - week 1 day 1 Yesterday was a good day. A bit of a slow start to the challenge though; I drew up my new challenge tracker about 9pm and realised that I hadn't hit a single goal so far that day . I quickly did my Dutch lesson on Duolingo and forced down an extra glass of milk to hit my minimum calories, so 2/6 goals were actually hit. On Sunday I had been up to town to see a rugby match. It was a great day, that match was fun and we had a meal and quite a few drink there as well. Including travel at 2+ hours each way I was out of the house from 9am to 10pm, so I was knackered when I got home. All of which meant I was feeling a bit flat yesterday. I did go to Crossfit, and hit 100kg (220#) x 3, 90kg x 5, and 80kg x 7 on squats. If that was tough, the WOD was tougher - 7 rounds for time of 2 power snatch, 5 pullups, 10 hand release pushups, and 15 air squats. I went for 35kg (77#) on the snatch, hit the 12 minute time cap after 6 rounds 11 reps, and was bloody knackered afterwards. I was late to Crossfit, late to work, and late leaving work - not the best start but that's why I'm working on timekeeping. The evening was spent being highly distracted by a rather excellent game of play by post werewolf, which thankfully for my challenge goals I am now out of. I've really enjoyed playing it for the past week, but man it was time-consuming. I did at least manage to hit those couple of goals, and boil eggs for the week (usually a Sunday evening activity), so I'm a bit better set up now at least. ETA: is anyone else having problems with the traffic filtering thing you have to go through before getting on the forums? On my phone it now comes up in the Cyrillic alphabet (and presumably what it's telling me is in Russian or another language in that alphabet), and I can often wait minutes to log on. It's not as bad on my PC, but definitely a lot slower and comes up more often than it used to.

That is pleasing to hear. I've been know to sketch one or two... Hopefully I'll sketch some more in a week or two Always good to have you lurking

Thought I'd share my challenge tracker from last challenge. I'm going to do something totally different this time round, but I did like the last one:

Absolutely steal away! Hyped to have you here I'd argue that March birthdays are the best (by 3 days ) Thanks dude! I know! I did think of you when I picked out the Grog image actually I'll definitely take that as a compliment - always happy to be a jack of all trades.

Thanks! It took me literally years to find a system that worked for me, but this one's been going pretty well so far. Great to have you!

A wood elf enters the tavern backwards, at speed, and briefly airbourne, before sliding along the flagstones for a few feet. "Well there's no need to be like that," he says calmly, in the general direction of the door, before rolling up to his feet and heading for the bar. "First time I've ever been throw into a tavern," he mutters, to no-one in particular, and then, in a more decisive tone, "Pint of the black stuff, barkeep." A few of us will be having a go at a worldbuilding challenge using Gygax 75 for this challenge cycle, and there's still time to join. If anyone is interested in creating an RPG campaign world during the next few weeks, or even just a bit of a creative challenge, check it out here:

My 2023 road map: And here's how last challenge went: Jarric's birthday party Last challenge I put an adventuring party together to represent my goals. There were far too many of them, so I've whittled it down slightly to give a bit more focus. My birthday falls at the end of week 3 of this challenge, so I guess these adventurers are my birthday party. Week zero of this challenge has been pretty busy at work, but I got some good news at the end of the week. I've applied to change my hours to work a 4-day week, and I got told that my application has been accepted! It doesn't start until September, so no immediate change in things, but it gives me something to look forward to. Aside from my birthday this challenge, I've also got a week and a half off leading up to that, and then I'm running Nuts Challenge (a 14km obstacle course race) the day after my birthday. Week 5 is likely to be pretty busy as my Mum is on holiday so I'll be checking in on my dad more, but at the end of week 5 I'll probably be going out for my usual 'watch the rugby and pretend it's for my birthday' day out. So, without further ado, lets meet our adventurers: The muscle [+2 CON] Continuing my bulk, hopefully in a slightly more consistent manner this time around. The aim is to increase my body weight by 0.25% each week (about 0.4lbs at the moment). In order to do that I will set my target calories for the week, knock off a couple of thousand, and then divide what's left by 7 to give a daily goal. That extra couple of thousand will form a floating allowance for snacks/eating out/alcohol etc.. I will also track protein daily, with a loose goal to eat at least 150g each day. For reference my weekly goal for week zero was 22,064kcal, divided up as 2,832 per day plus a floating 2,240. Assuming my weight doesn't drop this week, that will also be my goal for week 1. If I lose weight in a given week I'll up my calorie target, and if I don't gain at least 1lb for 3 consecutive weigh-ins I'll also increase my calorie target. The documancer [+2 INT] I have so nearly finished my current essay, following which I will have one, final 3,500-word essay to write to complete my professional qualification. This essay needs to be submitted in the next couple of weeks, though really I want it submitted by the end of week 1, and I'd love to have finished the final essay by the end of this challenge. In order to do this I will do some work on this essay every day. Even if it's only 10 minutes of editing in front of the TV, it all adds up and it keeps it fresh in my mind. During my time off work I will I have scheduled time in my calendar to do 2 hours per working day on the essay. If I hit that, I should finish it by the end of my time off. If I do finish and submit the last essay before the end of the challenge, I get a free pass on this goal for the remaining time and it counts as 100% completion on those days for my financial tracking. The chronologist [+2 SAN] This went poorly last time, so I'm mixing it up a bit. I'm crap at timekeeping, so I'm extending this beyond work to everything I do. Every day, I want to be on time for more things than I'm late for. And I'll be following the saying, 'if you're not early, you're late', so I'll need to arrive at things before a time for it to count. This applies to everything I have an appointment for, but I also have a few specific benchmarks: At the gym before 06:30 Out for my run before 06:30 At work before 08:35 Log off work before 17:30 At Pathfinder before 19:15 At D&D (online) before 11:55 At bouldering before 08:15 The cartographer [+2 CHA] This challenge I'll be having a go at the Gygax 75 challenge, with a bunch of other great nerds. This is a worldbuilding challenge that should give me everything to start a new homebrew campaign if I wanted to. To get full marks on this goal, I will need to complete all of the tasks each week, including the extra credit tasks. There's still time to sign up by the way, if you fancy a bit of a creative writing challenge: The translator [+1 INT] No change to this goal - practice both French and Dutch daily. Dutch will usually be Duolino, French will often be Duolingo or the Duolingo podcast, but if anyone has any other good resources I'm interested in that. The second storey specialist [+1 STR] This goal is to do something every day that makes me a better climber. Specifically, do hangboarding at least once per week, and stretch/foam roll/do yoga on all other days. I think that's it! Challenge start on Monday (obviously), and now I've written this I'm looking forward to it!

I'll be starting this challenge on Monday, but I'm guessing that some of you will be starting tomorrow. So, whilst I'm sure most of you have read the workbook (and if not, I encourage you to do so), I thought I would put the week 1 instructions here for ease of reference. Week 1: The Concept Articulate the big ideas and gather sources. “Step 1 is something you do in your head. Now, fantasy/swords & sorcery games need not have any fixed basis for the assumptions made by its referee (my own doesn't) except those which embrace the whole of fantasy. This sort of campaign can mix any and all of the various bases which will be mentioned below - and then some. […] Settings based upon limits (if one can speak of fantasy limits) can be very interesting in themselves providing the scope of the setting will allow the players relative free-reign to their imaginations.” – EGG Tasks Get/create a notebook. If you are intimidated by nice journals, get a run-of-the-mill spiral notebook or start by throwing your fancy journal down the stairs a few times and spilling coffee on it to teach it who’s boss! Seriously, get something that works for you: fancy or humble, new or used, cheap or pricey, graphed or lined or blank. If you prefer, you can work digitally, of course, keeping a folder of bookmarks, storing docs on a cloud drive, etc. Develop your pitch. Write down 3-7 well-crafted bullet points that will both communicate and “sell” the world to your players. Each bullet should be concise and focused – a few clear sentences is plenty. Emphasize the most essential bits for establishing excitement, expectations, and tone. Your pitch will give players an idea of what they can expect to find (or not find) in your setting and will help them create suitable character concepts. Gather your sources of inspiration. List them and provide a sentence or two explaining what each source brings to the setting. Cull your list so that it has no more than 7 entries. (This can be tough, but I think it’s important to focus the ideas so you aren’t getting dragged in too many directions at first.) Make sure the sources are referenced by your pitch points in some way. Sources are for you; you don’t have to share them with players and players shouldn’t have to be familiar them. In fact, Gygax would tell you not to share them as they might spoil some of the surprises for players or players might expect you to use parts of them you don’t intend to use. Extra Credit Assemble a mood board. You can use an online resource like Pinterest or create an old school collage of images that put you in the right headspace. A mood board is a great resource for quickly introducing the tone of your setting to players, and it can be a ‘living document’ that you work on over time, possibly together, expanding it as the setting grows. Start with a dozen or two visual references for places, characters, artistic styles, etc. As you work, think about how you decided what fit and what didn’t. Make sure the mood board elements support or inform your bullet points. Practice your pitch! Try explaining your idea out loud – first to yourself and then to some gamer friends (though maybe not the ones you intend to play with just yet).

I've resisted too - I'll be using the notebook I started Dungeon 23 in, before I gave up after 2 dungeon rooms.

Challenge wrap-up The muscle [+2 CON] Score: 22/35 = 62.9% = +1 CON I'm actually finding this quite hard at the moment. I did have a week where I massively exceeded my calories, thanks to lots of beer and plenty of food to soak it up, but mostly it's been hard to hit them. I think I need to eat a bigger breakfast, and to try to eat calorie dense things like seeds, and maybe that will help me get on target. That's the plan anyway. I'm going to include week 0 in my recent weights (because it makes it look better ) 11 stone 12 12 stone 4 12 stone 2 12 stone 2 12 stone 2 12 stone 6 12 stone 3 The upshot, I've lost 1lb in the last 5 weeks, but I've gained 5 lbs in the last 6 weeks. I think it's pretty clear that my 2nd January weight was an anomaly. I'm only looking to gain 1lb every 2-3 weeks, so I think this is generally, vaguely on target. I feel like I look bigger too, and I'm feeling strong, which are the important things. The documancer [+2 INT] 12/35 = 34.3% = +1 INT A pretty poor score all round here, so for week 0 of next challenge this is my one and only goal. I really want to get this damn essay finished. The face [+1 SAN] 34/35 = 97.1% = +1 SAN Near enough to perfect that I'm very happy. I'm dropping this goal next challenge, as it's becoming second nature, on the proviso that I'm bringing it back immediately if it starts to slip. The translator [+1 INT] 31/35 = 88.6% = +1 INT I missed one or the other language on a couple of days, but overall this was pretty good. There were quite a few days where I just made a token gesture, but I figure a token gesture every day is probably more productive in the long run than pushing myself harder and failing. This goal stays. The chronologist [+1 SAN] 5/21 = 23.8% = no stat increase I sucked at this. On the days I got away from work on time though, I did feel better for it. I think a more general time-keeping goal is needed next time round, because it's something I could just do with working on generally. The cartographer [+1 CHA] 2/5 = 40% = no stat increase The fact that I didn't draw at all for the last 3 weeks of this challenge is pretty rubbish. I'll be running the Gygax 75 challenge next cycle, so that will be taking the place of this for my creativity goal. Hopefully the accountability of a group doing the same thing will make this stick. The camp maker [+1 SAN] 4/5 = 80% = +1 SAN Until just now, I thought I'd done rubbish on this goal. Turns out I only missed week 5, which just goes to show that this is easier than I thought. Not sure what to do with this next challenge, but I would like my house to be cleaner. The field medic [+1 STR] 5/5 = 100% = +1 STR So my actual scores by week were 7, 3, 3, 2, 4. This was quite easy to hit, because stuff hurts from running and lifting and I want to stretch and foam roll. Will probably keep this up to track it, but combine it with this... The second storey specialist [+1 STR] 4/5 = 80% = +1 STR This went ok, once I figured out that it was much easier to do of a Wednesday evening than a Tuesday morning. It's the sort of thing I need to keep up for months or years to actually see any benefit, but I think I can work it in and eventually my climbing will improve. Overall So my stats now look like this: STR: 12 + 2 = 14 CON: 10 + 1 = 11 CHA: 3 + 0 = 3 SAN: 7 + 2 = 9 INT: 11 + 2 = 13 So I think one thing we can say is, so far in the last 13 months, I have not really fostered my creative side. That needs to change. Aside from that I'm very happy with this challenge. There's a couple of things I didn't manage to hit, but that's ok, I had far too many goals and I did better than I expected.

I'm happy with 1 per week, 1 every 2 weeks, whatever works really. I'm in no rush, and though I'm excited now 1 every 2 weeks allows life to get in the way and be less of a problem.

what can I say, I'm just naturally empathic. Seriously though, I definitely don't think of you as emotionally stunted if that's what you're saying. I think you're incredibly caring.

Week 5 wrap-up The muscle - 6/7 - I couldn't manage to eat enough on Sunday to hit my weekly goal. I didn't realise how tough it would be to eat this much, mainly because it's not all beer and fast food. I'm having a think about how I divide up my calories in future, to have a higher daily standard and less in the ad hoc bonus box. I lost 3lbs last week (expected as I spiked 4lbs up the week prior), so I'm increasing my calorie target again. Now aiming for 22,064kcal, which is an average of 3,152kcal per day. The documancer - 2/7 - I spent a lot of evenings messing around with my computer setup, and far too little time thinking about writing my essay. The face - 7/7 - all good here The translator - 7/7 - good here too The chronologist - 0/5 - I need to rethink this. It's important, but I'm not doing it currently. The cartographer - 0/1 - I haven't drawn anything in so long The camp-maker - 0/1 - Unless you count a lot or re-wiring stuff (which I don't), no tidying was done The field medic - 4/1 - This is pretty easy to hit, because when stuff hurts I want to stretch and foam roll. I'm not sure it needs to be a goal. The second storey specialist - 1/1 - it was the shortest hangboarding session ever, but it counts. Overall a good week last week. At the weekend I went climbing, did a bunch of D&D prep, and ran D&D. Last session the players ran away from the dungeon they had finished last session in (I think the mindflayer in the next room might have had something to do with that). When they returned to the quest giver with the man they had been sent to rescue, the quest giver confessed that he hadn't got any cash, and offered the party the deeds to a property instead. Exploring the slightly haunted property one of the players found a bag of teeth under a loose floorboard, and, as players do, they totally fixated on this detail. Most of the rest of the session was spent trying to find out where the teeth had come from, or decide what to do with them next. Eventually the party decided that they would probably re-open their property as a tavern, once they'd cleaned it up a bit, and started discussing ways to earn the money to do that.

Sounds like a plan to me. Would you mind setting it up, as you've done this before?

Yes! I'm glad you remembered what week we'd picked for this; I'm looking forward to it. Do you have any plan, apart from to watch it?

Dude, welcome back, it's so good to see you here! Good luck with the house move - moving sucks, but it could be a blessing in disguise if you land in the right place.

Good on you mate - get it gone. As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited about this I wondered where the inspiration for Vutha came from

That sounds like plenty to me. Hope you feel more rested today.

Of course! Here you go: I think the sauce would be a little boring if it weren't for the paprika, garlic, and cumin on the chicken, but if I reckon if I make the sauce on it's own I should just be able to put those straight in the sauce before blending.