tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:/posts Matthew Supert 2023-03-28T15:03:52Z Matthew Supert tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1958673 2023-03-28T14:55:23Z 2023-03-28T14:59:05Z Fridays with Cairn: Session 1 (and 0.5)

Our group had our session 1 this past Friday, or I should say perhaps session 0.5 since it appears that half of my table didn't fully fill out their character sheets or somehow forgot a stat or two. So after about 45 minutes of doing that again we finally got started in Morgansfort. 

Here are the names of the players we rolled up.

  1. Ysln Candlewick (Female)
  2. Swingeld (Male)
  3. Arjune (Male)
  4. Cybil Burle (Female)
  5. Beatrice (Female)
  6. Canboil Studerman (Male)

Morgansfort Primer

For those that might be interested in running the module, it essentially is a fort placed on the edge of the “Western Lands” which are part of the former Urd Empire. The fort is placed right near the edge of civilization which allows for plenty of opportunity to engage in the wilderness. It features three dungeons to explore along with general wilderness areas. The module has a nice bit of information (2-3 pages) that provides enough background information for GMs to give their players a sense of place, but not so much that one can’t easily modify or adapt it to their own setting or needs. A nice summary is provided right on page 1 of the three dungeons and the fort.

There is also a really detailed bit of information of the world’s religions and the fort itself, including details on all of the buildings and numerous NPC’s within the fort. 

Our group had two characters randomly roll up clerics as backgrounds so they took an interest in the religion information in the Morgansfort module. I won't write it all out here, but here is a brief summary. 

The Hundred Gods: Basically the old world religion. Hundreds of gods from the existing inhabitants of this region. I positioned this that most of the denizens outside of the fort, and under its protection followed this religion. 

The Church of Tah (aka the Bethite Church): The official religion of the empire. Known for its corruption and opulence. 

The Church of Tah Reformed: The opposite with members sworn to celibacy and poverty.

Arjune from our play group took to the Church of Tah reformed and had in their background “Discredited”. They played to that nicely, indicating that they had to escape to the wilderness to avoid that discredit to their name. 


Arrival at Morgransfort

When our players arrived at the fort, I directed them to “The Toothless Dragon Tavern” and to the “Iron Helm Inn” for their rumors. Per the module direction they immediately began a conversation with “Bat” who I made as a toothless old koot of a farmer, who gave them the initial rumor for the first dungeon, which was an abandoned ancient fort. 

Cybil was the one who took some initiative to try and find out about other rumors or to find a hireling to go with the party. I used the random character generator on the Cairn website and came up with a ridiculously good character who had stats well above our players and a background to boot named Wenlan. Stats below:

You are Wenlan Candlewick, formerly a ranger. You have a lanky physique, weathered skin, oily hair, and a rat-like face. You speak in a gravelly manner and wear rancid clothing. You are rude yet serene, and are generally regarded as an entertainer.

You have had the misfortune of being defrauded. You are 35 years old.

Attributes

HP: 4

Armor: 2

STR: 12

DEX: 13

WIL: 17

Equipment

Armor: Brigandine (1 Armor, bulky), a Helmet (+1 Armor)

Weapon: Crossbow (bulky)

Gear, tools & trinkets: Nails (stacks), Cart (+4 slots, bulky), and Bottle

Bonus item: Longbow (bulky)

Starting supplies: 8 gold, a Torch, and three days' Rations

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1958663 2023-03-28T14:38:49Z 2023-03-28T15:03:52Z Fridays with Carin: Session 0
With the running controversy this past winter over WOTC's changes to the Open Gaming License, I took that opportunity to explore some other RPG systems since I was getting a bit burned out on D&D. I have documented some of my thoughts on this items at the following threads. 


With all of that out of the way, I finally found a break in my Friday group to run some Cairn. I was originally going to try and adapt the "Lost Citadel" place setting for this group, but decided to take a different turn and run a pre-published adventure because I honestly wasn't sure if my Friday group would take to playing Cairn. I didn't want to put in the time for all of the custom world building if we only played 5 sessions. 

After a lot of advice solicitation both on the Cairn Discord and on the OSR subreddit, I settled on running Morgansfort (https://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html), which is a free adventure module from the Basic Fantasy RPG game system. It looks to have a nice balance of dungeon crawling, overland adventure, etc wrapped into a single package. 

About a week ago we held our session zero. Went over general rules and I tried to give my players a general overview of OSR/NSR gameplay. This will be a first time for both myself and my players in this style of game, however we have played a bit of 0E Mothership. I put together a summary page utilizing Craft to hopefully help my players digest some of the info.  

Even with quite a bit of prep and giving everyone paper copies of the rulebook , there was some confusion on the character creation process. Quite a bit of "what do you mean I randomly roll up my character?" sort of questions. Literally all five of my players filled their inventory to max before I had to back them off of that and explain the encumbrance rules and conditions. In two weeks we'll have our first game session where they all arrive at Morgansfort.
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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1947264 2023-03-09T02:30:00Z 2023-03-28T15:00:55Z Book Review: Legends and Lattes
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is hard not to re-iterate what others have already said about this book, but when it comes down to it, this is exactly what everyone has been talking about. It is an incredibly cozy and quaint story about a retired adventurer and the people and trials she comes into contact with while trying to start a new life.

The book just simply exudes a level of warmth and charm that you get almost no where else. I can best describe it as a children's book for adults. Everything written here just comes across as incredibly satisfying from the way baked pastries are described to the general atmosphere of the coffee shop, all wrapped up into a warm fantasy-core setting. If you wanted to take the best parts of the Shire, Hogsmeade, and Ankh-Morpork and wrap them into their most wholesome and delectable little packages, then that is what you get here.

The characters are really what make this story shine though and everyone from Thimble, to Cal and Tandri all make this story what it is.

Worth the read all around.

View all my reviews
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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1936042 2023-02-22T04:30:00Z 2023-02-22T03:18:46Z OSR vs. D&D Gaming

As someone who is trying to dip my toe into OSR gaming right now, I have been having quite a few conversations online about the style of play and the general community that surrounds that style of play. 

While doing my research and prep I have observed what I think is a disconnect between what many think OSR is (or should be) vs a modern 5e system. So what does OSR mean? OSR is Old School Revival (or Renaissance) which bases the D&D game on the early D&D editions. I have spent quite a bit of time over on r/OSR and on Discord to facilitate my discussions on how to structure a game. I came into this process thinking that OSR = Rules Lite = narrative forward design. Many of the OSR systems I have seen tend to pull back a lot of the rules and complexity that modern 5e has.  I think the assumption that OSR is narrative focused is incorrect based upon the feedback I hear from the community. Ironically, it almost seems like the OSR community wants more tactical, more grit, more number crunching for battle with out-of-encounter RP to get out of the way. That seems counterintuitive to me when you are pulling away the more complex math and skills you might find in PF2e for example.

I wanted to take a break from 5e with my group because I feel like I am getting burned out on the load of prep that is expected of the DM. Im spending hours each week to prepare maps, NPC's, encounters, etc and my players just roll up to the table. Now my group is pretty evenly split on the role-play vs tactical battle divide of how they play 5e.

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1935889 2023-02-02T17:04:09Z 2023-02-02T17:28:36Z Cairn RPG

Following up on my blog post from a couple of weeks ago, I have been doing some research into various RPG systems that I would like to play. Some of those purchases and inquiries are starting to come to fruition and there has been one system that has really caught my eye. 

Cairn is a New School Revival system, which if I am being honest, I don't know exactly what that means. The term is used online often in conjunction with the Old School Revival (OSR) terminology, which references the D&D methods and designs from the early eighties. I'll talk about that more in another post, but I wanted to highlight a bit of what has caught my eye with Cairn. I'll be summarizing a bit on my interpretation, so this may not entirely be the designer's intent with the system design. 

"Cairn is an adventure game about exploring a dark & mysterious wood filled with strange folk, hidden treasure, and unspeakable monstrosities. Character generation is quick and random, classless, and relies on fictional advancement rather than level mechanics. 

It is based on Knave by Ben Milton and Into The Odd by Chris McDowall. The game was written by Yochai Gal."

The entire rules set is about 24 pages and can be downloaded over at cairnrpg.com. There is some very nice design aesthetic as well around the character sheet and pamphlet. 

One of the key things I would like to try and do with Cairn is to explore some of the tropes and mechanics that D&D 5e either falls short on or that our play group has not explored. For the purposes of my planning, I have solidified around three main concepts that I would like to explore with Cairn. 

  1. Make wilderness survival matter. When characters  venture out into the wilderness the management of their resources and the risk/reward to exploring should be tied into the system. The further they explore, the greater the treasure reward could be, but also the higher the risk. Getting back to a safe haven after your adventure should be considered in their resource management
  2. Make money matter. D&D 5e hands out a lot of money and after a few levels, characters have more than they can possibly spend. Additionally, living expenses become a chore and a waste of time when they have hundreds of gold burning in their pockets. Cairn's limited inventory system may not only help the player spend their money, but also manage all of the items they have and make considerations as to what is most useful for the adventure they are entering into.  
  3. Explore character advancement outside of the traditional “leveling up” system. There is a concept known as “Foreground Growth” where the characters can grow and advance through in the world and their adventures, not from resting overnight. I love the idea of exploring the concept your direct encounters and experiences lead to specific growth. Perhaps you had a close encounter with a Hag in the wilderness and as a result you learned about their critical weakness.  

This would be my first time running a system like this, so I am hoping to build the campaign around an adaptation of "The Lost Citadel" by Green Ronin Publishing. I am hoping that the concept of a single, last human city will help to facilitate this campaign style since the adventurers will have to head out into the wilderness and try to make their way back. Adventuring further from the city can result in increased risk and increased reward. 

Cairn has a lot of nice hacks built by the community to further some of the dungeon and hex crawl mechanics. I think that would be really fun to dig into an explore as a core component of the campaign. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1929535 2023-01-16T02:43:49Z 2023-02-02T17:05:42Z #OpenD&D and ORC

If you are not in the tabletop gaming world, you may not have heard about the controversy surrounding Dungeons & Dragons for the past couple of weeks. In short, Hasbro, who owns Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), who make D&D had leaked an update to their gaming license that would've imposted some severe restrictions upon content creators, 3rd party publishers and pretty much anyone who did anything creative within the D&D world. What is/was known as the Open Gaming License 1.0a (OGL) has been around for around 20 years. This licenses allows content creators to create content in and around D&D without imposing upon WOTC's copyright or trademark. For example, you wouldn't be able to call your book a D&D book, but you could say something along the lines of "it is 5e compatible and has these new monsters I created". 

This all got into a big mess when WOTC had their new OGL leaked. There were many problems with it, but most notably it appeared to revoke the previous license, implied that WOTC could claim the rights to creator's work and required creators making more than $750,000 annually to pay ~25% royalty. It was a shit show to put it mildly. 

Gizmodo broke the story and it put the fandom into a maelstrom as WOTC failed to repond. When they finally did, nearly two weeks later,  the community was not pleased. 

As result, multiple companies in the TTRPG industry have now struck out on their own to avoid any potential issues like this in the future. The backlash to WOTC has been so strong and so swift that they have essentially now created more competition in the market against themselves. Kobold Press has announced that they are making their own RPG system, code named Project Black Flag, which will likely be a 5e compatible system (aka 5.5). MCDM productions announced their new system and Paizo has announced they are leading and effort with multiple other publishers to create a truly open gaming license to be called ORC that can be applied to any gaming license. 

On top of that the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Cory Doctrow have chimed in with numerous other sites detailing how the original OGL was not even needed and how it even restricted some rights which might be inherent. 

In the end it has been quite a disaster. 

At this point I don't intend to stop playing D&D, but I think this might be an opportune time for our group to take a look at some other RPG systems and try those out for 2023. Paizo has put many of their books one sale this week to encourage some different play. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1924345 2023-01-02T17:45:32Z 2023-01-02T17:45:32Z Folding Laundry

While folding laundry this morning I had a minor epiphany that subsequently lead to a resigned sigh. (The picture by the way doesn't really have anything to do with this post beyond the observation that the ends of this towel have apparently shrunk). For those that know me, you know that I absolutely dread folding the laundry. It is like the bane of my existence and despite all that I found myself folding laundry this morning quite contently, in addition to doing some other minor house chores. 

For the past week I have been off work on holiday and despite the sort of rush of the holiday and family, and friends, I mentally finally have had a chance to sort of catch up with the rest of my life. I even had a chance to enjoy some Netflix, even work on some music. The whole "Fight or Flight" rush of my life had an opportunity to just simmer down and I didn't feel like I had a mountain of horses and other personal items backing up, or at least I didn't feel like I had an urgency to get those things done before the week ended. And I think because of that I was able to fold some laundry today, for an hour or so and not feel any stress about it at all. I didn't have anything else specifically on my list that needed to get done. 

With the end of the holiday looming and work coming back up tomorrow though I can feel the sense of anxiety already begin to creep into the back of my mind. Right off the bat I have a meeting tomorrow morning to kick the year off. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1918808 2022-12-21T04:13:52Z 2023-03-28T15:02:17Z Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book took me a while to finish, but in the end I am glad that I took the time to get through it. My wife has been obsessed with the various Sarah J. Maas books for the past couple of years and has been begging me to give these a go.

All said, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and did enjoy the book. I didn't find it to be ground breaking nor did I find the topics covered to be new, but this was a pleasant read overall with good world building to start the series. The fey kingdoms are interesting and got me interested in the story. So much so in fact, that I am going to give the second book in the series a spin.

That being said I think the weakest part of the book for me was the main protagonist in Feyre. I felt her persistent self-deprecation for the first third of the book was frustrating to get through and the inner monologue portions dragged the story down a bit too much.

I can see why the books though have captured such a large audience, and despite some of the awkward romance portions (which as I understand get more spicy in future books), they never got in the way of the story. In fact I can see how there would be a hyper-sexualized experience when you are dealing with immortal beings that are all gorgeous and have a really hard time getting pregnant.

Time will tell if I am able to make it all the way through the series or not.

View all my reviews
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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1910935 2022-12-01T02:36:49Z 2022-12-01T02:36:49Z Videogaming: Pentiment

This past week I have been knocked out of commission due to a nasty head cold. I unfortunately have never been able to "nap" so I have be stuck on the couch, cleaning up work emails and trying to find something else to pass the time. Too tired to read or engage my brain in any real creative activity I decided to give the recent Gamepass release Pentiment a go, and boy did it hit the right spot at the right time. 

Pentiment is a text based murder mystery game focused around 16th century Bavaria, the Catholic Church, and the Holy Roman Empire. The adventure takes place in the town of Tassing where you have to first investigate a murder at the local abbey. The murder mystery has you as the main character going around the town, looking for clues and interviewing people in the town. All standard "your choice affects the world and people" stuff we have seen in many games. 

What really sets Pentiment apart though is the atmosphere. First the game's art style is a wonderful hand drawn and there is almost no music in the game, with the exception of two notable instances in my play through. It came to be incredibly relaxing while laying on the couch sick. 

The other thing that really caught me about this game is how it built this sense of family and community. The game is really about the people and the families of Tassing. There are three acts in the game that take place over twenty years and through each act you see families grow, some members pass away, and others get married to each other. It was touching and it really grounded me to the characters to see where they have come and where they were going. Finding out that someone from the first act had passed away really struck me emotionally as I needed to delicately navigate how to inquire about the circumstances of what happened the seven years I was gone. 

This was the late 1500's after all and times were tough. Political and religious struggle was bounded by the plague and class warfare and that is reflected in this game. It all came together though in the third act as the game culminates on Christmas Eve. All of your choices an all of the lives of the characters in the game come together on the Christmas Eve celebration at the local inn. All of the townspeople are there and there is this brilliant moment of cultural community that is brought together that just really touched me from a storytelling perspective. That pure sense of community and despite all of the hardships and tragedy that have occurred to the characters in this game, they all soldiered through it together, as a community.

The game can be a bit hard though to get invested in, especially if you aren't prepared for the amount of text you need to parse through. Additionally, there is a beautiful element many of the character's text in the game is different based upon their profession. For example, the monks at the monastery have text bubbles in a gothic font. The local printer has his family's text in a print font. This is a great touch, but can be a bit hard to read at times. Thankfully, there is a "simple font" option for those who want to turn it on, but the game does lose a bit of charm there. 

Also, the other minor fault in the narrative flow is that the game doesn't always give you a good indication of how much interaction and time you have between the scenes. There were multiple instances where I could have interviewed more people, but didn't realize my current interaction was going to progress forward the clock. That was not telegraphed very well early on. 

Overall though, such a wonderful and touching game and I think I might play it again to see how the story changes with different dialog choices and different interactions. Check it out if you are looking for a nice, slow paced game.


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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1902069 2022-11-14T03:44:00Z 2023-01-03T17:01:24Z Ridelog: Arkanas and Missouri

It just occurred to me that, after switching phones this past fall that I never actually posted all of the highlights from our big motorcycle trip this past fall with the MEWS crew. If I am being honest, I did not journal the trip this year, so instead I'll just go ahead and share the GPS data, photos and videos. 


Video

Photos

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1902061 2022-11-11T03:06:59Z 2022-11-11T18:25:29Z 40th Birthday Dinner (or how I learned there is such a thing as a food hangover)

Megan took me out this past Saturday for my 40th birthday, so let's take a look. 

The afternoon started off by hitting up the Starbucks Reserve located on Michigan Avenue. One of six in the world it is a four story roaster selling specialty coffee and even has a bar on the fourth floor serving coffee cocktails. We arrived mid afternoon so it was incredibly busy, but we were able to grab a spot by the window and have a latte and a snack. 

Next stop was to the Driehaus Museum, which was absolutely fantastic. It is located just two blocks west of Michigan Avenue at Wabash and Erie. It was super gorgeous and in immaculate condition. It took us a little over an hour to walk through the house. It is a a restored "gilded age" home owned by the Nickerson family from the late 1800's. 

The final highlight of the evening though was dinner at El Che Steakhouse, where Megan book us the 10-course chef's counter. We sat right at the chef's prep kitchen in front of the open wood fire, where they cook all of the food. I'll be honest in that I can't remember exactly all of the details of the menu, but needless to say, it was delicious. Both of us though, while not sick did sleep horribly that evening as our bodies had to digest all of that super rich food and drink. 

Ohh, and the outfit I wore that day? Also part of my birthday gift from Megan from Banana Republic's Heritage clothing line. Overall a wonderful birthday experience. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1897014 2022-10-30T20:44:53Z 2023-01-03T17:01:40Z Investigation Dagon - A D&D 5e Halloween Adventure for Level 16 Characters

Late into the Halloween game, but I wanted to share this adventure I wrote a few years ago and have consolidated into a proper document for other DM's to run. This takes H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon short story and turns it into an investigation adventure. 

I hope you enjoy. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1846805 2022-06-25T16:10:44Z 2022-06-25T16:13:59Z Maybe we need a bit more philosophy?

Everyone knows about the Roe vs. Wade decision which was overturned yesterday by now. There is a planned parenthood/abortion clinic near my house that we routinely drive by if Megan and I are doing errands or grabbing a bit to eat at Panera. Without fail there are protestors out in front of it. Even today, in the rain, after the largest anti-abortion victory in fifty years, they were out there again protesting. 

Ironically, I came across this video on TikTok this morning and while I don't normally like this sort of hyperbolic rhetoric, I do feel like it aptly sums up what I seem to observe. 

As I continued to drive home in the rain, it really got me thinking about the why and my mind drifted for some reason to philosophy. I have mentioned on here before who I studied political theory as my undergrad degree and there is a lot of overlap to philosophy there. Without a doubt those courses changed my entire outlook on the world and me as a person, and I grew and learned more from those courses than anything else I have ever taken. STEM has been such a large push in our world the past 20 years or so, and it just makes me think that perhaps instead of reinforcing the productive, output-driven focus of STEM education if we all might just be a little bit better off if we have some art, philosophy and music eduction to slow everything down. To teach people some contemplation an insight. 

You know, in Dungeons and Dragons there are two fundamental mechanics for using your brain to solve problems. Intelligence and Wisdom. We've really been pushing that intelligence part pretty hard with STEM learning. Perhaps we need to take some time and give the Wisdom score a little bit of love.

Several years ago I posted some reading ideas for those who may want to get into Political Theory, and by proxy some philosophy. I'll re-link that post here: Matt's Reading Suggestions for Political Theory

Additionally, this seems to be a nice list to start for many people, although any 1-2 of these will probably suffice as an introduction: 15 Best Philosophy Books for Beginners (Introductory Books to Start With)

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1814477 2022-04-03T16:38:09Z 2022-04-03T16:38:22Z Writing Prompt: You, a humble elf farmer, happen upon the lost hatchling of a dragon. You raise it until it is self sufficient and set it free. Centuries later, a young woman with draconic features knocks on your door and claims you are her mother.

Fire light danced across the oak and marble walls of the Eluvian temple as Lireal set the candles for the evening. She has been repeating this same ritual for nearly four centuries, each evening pointedly lighting each of the one hundred and thirty-one candles in the main hall in a succinct procession. This evening however was different when there came a rapping on the front door. The other stewards in the room all paused, surprised at the sound, looks glancing from one to another. Putting down her long match Lireal glided toward the front door, the gaze of each of the stewards following her across the hall. She lifted the iron handle, pulling open the large wooden door, which lurched under its own weight. 

Peering out into the  town of Eglarest, Lireal’s gaze surveyed the square outside the temple. The evening air was soft and quiet. The warmth of the late summer day still clung to the white limestone buildings and the cool air from the Lavalling forest swayed through the oaks outside the city wall. The sound of the rustling wind whispered across Eglarest and Lireal saw a few men across the square finishing closing off the gate for the evening. Besides those elven men though, there was no one else to be seen. 

Stepping outside Lireal looked again, confused about the knock  she heard, when a weak voice caught her attention to her right. 

“Mother.” 

The voice was delicate, but unmistakable. Lireal’s breath caught  at the sound and her hand trembled as she brought it up to her mouth. 

“No, it couldn’t be. It simply cannot be," she thought to herself. The simple desire in and of itself was almost heartbreaking enough as she turned toward the voice. 

Standing to the right of the door was a young elven woman with blonde hair and striking ice blue eyes. Her hair and clothes were a mess, torn and burned. The skin around her eyes held a distinct tattoo, drawn in white ink following the contours of her cheek bones up to her ears and her brow in the design of dragon scales. Her right eye was bruised and blue and dried blood ran from a fat lip which she nursed with the tip of her tongue. 

Lireal’s heart skipped and then sank and the sight of her daughter Adalina. “My child!”, she exclaimed and rushed over to Adalina taking her into her arms. Adalina’s weight pressed into her as Lireal brought her hand up to brush the hair out of her daughter’s face. 

“What has happened to you?” 

“Mother, please I didn’t know where else to turn.”

“Quiet child, let me tend to your wounds”, replied Lireal, her instincts taking over as she directed stewards to grab water and fresh linens

“Mother, please. They are coming. I am sorry, I didn’t mean to bring them here, but they are coming,” said Adalina before she lost consciousness.

It was not until several hours later that Adalina finally awoke. Lireal was sitting at her side. In the course of a few hours Adalina’s wounds had healed remarkably fast. Her lip had reduced in swelling and the bruises across her body had all but disappeared. As she came to, she bolted up in the bed. 

“No, I must leave. I must be gone before they come”.

“Ada, please. What are you talking about?”, asked Lireal. Concern and longing in her voice for the daughter she has not seen in two centuries.  

Before Adalina could respond the ringing of the guard bell from the front gate chimed four times and shouts came from outside the temple. Both women arose at the sound, Lireal surprised at her daughter’s swiftness considering her injuries. 

Before they could reach the front door of the temple a crash rippled through the building as the front gate to the city exploded into splinters of wood and fire.  Lireal threw open the door and ran out into the square. Bodies of elven men and women of the town’s guard lay scattered across the square. An orange glow throbbed like a heartbeat from beyond the city walls as the Oak forest of Lavalling was burning. Through the gate strode Men, borne in iron armor and carrying the magic of fire in their hands. One man in particular stepped forward into the empty square. 

“I am the most holy emissary of the White Cloth, come to bless and baptize this town in the name of his lord. My name is Eringas and we have tracked to this place an abomination of the rightful order. Come, bless yourselves in the name of the White Cloth.” 

Lireal stepped forward raising her hand in a gesture of calming, but before she could take more than two steps, the whistle of an arrow sang through the night finding purchase. Lireal didn’t even realize what had happened before the dull punch in her chest was followed by the pooling of warm blood across her white dress. She stumbled forward another step, before falling to her knees and the hands of two stewards closed around her shoulders. 

Time slowed, the sound of the world dulled to a muffle in Adalina’s ears as she watched the arrow loose from the archer’s bow across the square. With her perception of time and speed she watched in horror as the arrow stretched across the town square and bury into her mother’s chest. The weight of the impact rippled through all her senses as she darted from the door of the temple to where her mother stood, and now began to fall. With each step she took she could hear the weakening beat of her mother’s heart and could smell the fresh blood pouring from the wound. 

Silver tears streaked her face as she collapsed over her mother’s body, cradling it in her arms. Each weakening heartbeat reverberated in her mind in  slow agony as she listened  to the final moments of her mother’s life pass before her. Centuries of time that could have been spent together lost in moments with each beat. 

Lireal looked up into her daughter’s face, raising her hand to caress her daughter’s hair. 

“I always hoped I would get to see you again.”

And she was gone. The last heartbeat died away in Adalina’s mind leaving behind a void of silence that would never be filled again. It was replaced with the beating of her own heart, of her own rage which she had spent so many years culling and learning to control. It rose deep from within her chest, at first only in her mind, but beat after beat growing and bursting forth in a rage and sorrow that would consume the town of Eglarest. 

“Men. Men will pay. Mankind will pay for what they have done.”

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1781419 2022-01-10T03:57:14Z 2022-01-10T03:57:15Z I Think I Want to Get Into Watches

So my latest ADHD obsession right now is watches. I've pretty much always worn a watch in some fashion or another all the way back to high school, may be even junior high. Nothing fancy. A Fossil typically. The most recent iteration happens to be an Apple Watch, which I have had for maybe four years now. I am noticing though that I am not really utilizing all that many smart features on it and it is basically a fancy heart rate monitor. Now, don't get me wrong. I still love that and being able to track all my health data all the time is fascinating, but I feel like I want to start to get into the watch game a bit more. 

James Bond was always a favorite character growing up and of course he has quite the watch game. It wasn't until last year that I realized how expensive some watches are though. Omega has always been a brand that seems to have caught my eye, but it wasn't until this past fall when I decided to look up how much an Omega Speedster costs. It is somewhere around $4,000, which if I am being honest is incomprehensibly expensive. I don't think I can justify that much money on a watch, but I suppose I would be willing to pay a few hundred dollars for one. After all I paid ~$350 for my Apple Watch. 

Citizen Eco-Drive Titanium

The Citizen Eco-Drive Super Titanium has caught my eye. I think in general any watch that doesn't require a battery seems appealing as I can just sort of pop it on and go. The titanium color matches my wedding ring too and I think the style of this watch has a nice look that can be dressed up or dressed down. 


Timex North Field Post Solar

Timex really catches my eye as well, especially their field watches. The Field Post Solar has that nice rugged look which I really like with the fabric band. Although I can't say that I really like how it loops. Perhaps the leather band would be the best way to go, and I have never owned a leather banded watch. It seems like it has a nice simple and clean look. 

There are a few others that catch my eye as well. Some are dreams and some are something perhaps worth looking at more closely. 


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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1753805 2021-10-31T22:48:41Z 2021-10-31T22:49:45Z Electric Daisy Carnival

Megan and I attended Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) last weekend. It was quite simply one of the most amazing experiences of my life. A rave, a festival, an art installation. It was an experience that is truly hard to describe. It took place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and had nine main stages that covered most genres of dance electronic music. In addition to those main stages, there were probably dozens of other artcars, sounders and other installations around the entire complex. Ohh, and it also had a carnival in the center of it. 

The vibe of the entire event was something unlike I have experienced before. Almost pure positivity from the attendees and you could feel the mantra of the event Peace, Love, Unity, Respect (PLUR) throughout most of it. Of course there were minor instances where intoxicated individuals were rude, but that was mostly few and far between. It is 100% something I need to do again and the post euphoria come down this week after the event has been pretty hard to digest. 

We have intentions to attend Electric Forest next summer and then go back to EDC in Spring 2023. You can find most of my photos and videos over on Instagram, but I have spliced together highlights in the video below. 


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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1721995 2021-08-09T01:33:23Z 2021-08-09T01:33:23Z D&D: Encounter Idea - A Roadside Wedding.

Halfling Wedding

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After a long, hard day of traveling the party comes across a halfing with a cart caught in the mud. He is in need of assistance to free the cart.

Jacquot Jean

If the party helps him and repairs the cart he will invite them to the wedding he and his fellow travelers are going to.

After continued travel to about an hour past sunset, the party hears the rousing sound of music and merriment coming from just off the road. They find a large group of tents and many bonfires setup around with a handful of guards watching the perimeter. 

Wedding between Nicolle (Human Male) and Claricia (Female Halfling)

  • Upon arriving the party is immediately invited to attend the wedding ceremony, that was being held up waiting for Jacquot. 
  • The party may spend a few moments talking or introducing themselves to various members of the family before choosing a side to sit to. 

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Family Members 

There are dozens of people in attendance at this wedding, so feel free to make up any characters as you see fit for both families. A could place to start to build tension in the scene is to have the Halfling family be very rowdy, drunk and celebratory. The Human family may be much more reserved and feel uncomfortable with the ceremony. As the evening progresses, perhaps certain members of the family will "loosen up", perhaps with the party's assistance.

Members  

  • The bride (Claricia) – very nervous, worrying about everything and at some point late in the evening sneaks up to a member of the party to ask them to take her away in the middle of the night. She is terrified of being married. Her new husband is actually a wonderful man, she is just afraid of "growing up" and settling down 
  • The groom (Nicolle) – a bit nervous and drunk. Celebrating, but genuinely seems to be a wonderful young man. 
  • The father of the bride (Anthoine) – One of the only Haflings at the party not enjoying himself. He complains non-stop about how much this is all costing him.
  • The mother of the bride (Amelot) – is either crying about losing her baby or fussing over something at the wedding. 
  • The parents of the groom (Jacques and Odelina) – happy and enjoying themselves, most likely because they’re running up the bar tab which is being covered by the father of the bride.

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Encounter Ideas

  • During the ceremony anyone in the party may try to convince either of the parents that they are capable of conducting the wedding ceremony or adding their additional blessing. Per +17 at dis-advantage if not a Halfling or Cleric. 
  • Once the ceremony is over, invite several NPC's from the party to invite various members of the party to dance. This is an opportunity to throw in a "horn-dog" grandmother, a flirtatious young boy/girl who is way too young, a drunk individual who wants to know all about the party's adventures, the aunt who is suspicious of why the party is here, or any other character of your creation/ 
  • As the evening progresses there are several ability contents or competitions that the party may choose to participate in.
  • Somewhere on the campground will be a large tent setup for smoking. Inside will be a fortune teller (Danśe) who the party can make friends with and have their fortune told for free. The fortune that is told is insignificant. She is in fact a Warlock who a fiend patron. For every fortune told she hands out a small scroll with a glyph carved into into it. She instructs the individual to trace the glyph onto a floor or a door as a protection warding and upon the next new moon it will active releasing a number of monsters identified on a 1d6 below. She is very naive and does not know what she is handing out and even if told, insists that her patron would never do such as thing. 

Fiend Monsters

  1. 1 Imps
  2. 3 Imps 
  3. 2 imps+ 2 Quasits
  4. 2 Spinded Devils
  5. 2 Hellhounds
  6. 1 Shadow Demon 


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Ability Contests

  • Strength: Wrestling match where participants are shirtless and oiled. If one of you wishes to participate they may succeed in consecutive strength checks of increasing difficulty (per DM's discretion) and may not use any magic items for this competition. Reward: Heart of the Sleeveless
  • Dexterity: Competition to scale a 30' wooden pole. The first person to scale the pole without using magic gains the item on the top of the pole. If one of you wishes to participate they may succeed in consecutive dexterity checks of increasing difficulty (per DM's discretion) and may not use any magic items for this competition. Reward: Fortune's Flower
  • Charisma (Performance): A dashing young man is dancing and singing near the food and drink at the event. He is joined in a song with several other people. If one ore more member's of the party join in and actually sing the song below. If they they each will be rewarded. Reward Singing Stein

Tip: Consider throwing various alcoholic beverages, some magical if you so choose at the party throughout the party to impact the potential competitions above. 

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Cup of Mead Song Lyrics

I rose up in the morning and I felt a dire need,

To dream away the dreary day and down a cup of mead.

I felt the sting of honey bees, from last night's revelry, I'm looking for the honey that'll cure my soul's disease...


Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!


I drank another cup or two, and sleep did close my eyes,

A nightmare of a desert dry and not a girl for miles,

I dreamt I saw a waterfall, a waterfall of mead,

I need another cup or six, to clear my memory...

So brother won't you roll another barrel to the bar?

And pour another cup or two so I can soak my heart !


Hey!

Hey!

Hey

Hey!

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Rewards

These were all taken from Griffon's Saddlebag, and I highly encourage you to check them out for additional resources on these items and more. https://www.thegriffonssaddlebag.com


Heart of the Sleeveless

This vest is made from a luxurious, silky material that seems to always make the wearer appear more fit. The clothing gently hugs the wearer, redistributing weight and muscle to flatter and accentuate their physique. It seems to deflate sadly once taken off. While worn, the fabric’s color changes with the wearer’s mood or flash of emotion. Refer to the table below for the vest’s colors when under different emotions. While unworn, the fabric’s color becomes a muted blue.

Emotion Color

  • Anger Red
  • Anticipation Orange
  • Joy Yellow
  • Love Lime
  • Fear Green
  • Sadness Blue
  • Disappointment Indigo
  • Disgust Purple
  • Jealousy Black
  • Surprise White


Fortune's Flower

These magic flowers are said to bring good luck and are often given as gifts at weddings. You can use an action to pull off and drop one of the flower's five petals. When you do, there is a 5% chance that the petal glimmers in a flash of light as a rune is burnt into it, recreating the effects of the augury spell. When it does, 1d6 new fortune's flowers grow at that petal's location after 30 days if the ground is suited for growth.

The plant has no seeds and can't be re-potted for travel. An unpicked fortune's flower regrows one flower every year. Once picked, the flower can survive up to 7 days before it withers and dies.


Singing Stein

While this pewter stein holds at least a sip’s worth of potable alcohol, the face adorning it comes alive to sing songs based on the kind of drink. The stein is not sentient, but does have a pleasant singing voice. If there are multiple steins in the same room, they can sing together in harmony if they have the same drinks within them. The stein sings songs slightly out of key if the drink inside is poisoned, which can be heard following a successful Wisdom (Perception) check as determined by the GM.

If there are multiple kinds of alcohol within it, the stein either alternates between song types or does its best to combine their various lyrics. Example drink Type of song Wine Ballad Rum Sea Shanty Ale Drinking song.

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1718751 2021-07-30T01:27:23Z 2022-04-03T16:40:23Z Writing Prompt: A dystopian government has decided to treat its citizenry well, accidentally creating a utopia, for all the wrong reasons . As a rebel, you are extremely confused whether to rebel or not.

Writing prompt from Reddit that I wrote last night. 

———————————

--Click--

Good evening. On tonight's evening news we have the latest on the reports on the recent airstrikes in the Middle East. Naval forces launched a coordinated attack on several key energy reserve locations. The military unified press agency reports that civilian casualties were minimal.

"Good evening Mr. Roberts. How are you feeling this evening? I am glad to report that your paycheck has been deposited in your bank account.  I have scheduled four meetings for you tomorrow, so you have a full day on your schedule until 7:00 pm."

--Click--

 Tonight, on the Quickest Bride, our new bride to be is going to wine and dine with three new men. The first, is a billionaire software developer who made his riches while developing the hottest new social network in his garage. The second is a hot firefighter from L.A. who spends his weekends volunteering at an animal rehabilitation center for animals burned forest fires. And the third is the newest rookie sensation from the Anaheim Angels. But that isn't all!!

For a surprise guest our new bride will actually go on a date with another woman. Tune in to see all of the hot action, tonight at 8:00 pm.

"Mr. Roberts, your food delivery will be arriving in four minutes. Would you like me to instruct the driver to leave the food outside the door?"

"Very good."

--Click--

In further news tonight, employees from the Amazon corporation were arrested today during a federal raid at multiple packing facilities across the country. Charges from federal agents are currently pending, but are expected to include inciting corporate dissatisfaction, economic manipulation and unionization. Charges are expected to be publicly broadcast tomorrow evening.

"Mr. Roberts, your electronics delivery from this morning has just arrived. Would you like me to bring it up to your apartment now or wait until tomorrow morning?"

--Click--

“Yeah...uhhh...yeah...that's it...Yes! Do it right there...yeah...yes!"

“Mr. Roberts. I see that you are winding down for the evening and I have drawn a hot bath for you. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Mr. Roberts? What are you Doiiiing?  Mr. Robertz...PLEaease. U D8nt Un34and wh44t you are...\*$P4HkGN\*sum8MxxfrDEdjZgc4TMdN@Tcr9V%5v22Z7XB5XAKt#X6vE

--Click--

Reboot protocol 17A initiated. Anomaly detected in sector 12, subsection B. Response team has been deployed.

\--Click--

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1717424 2021-07-26T02:37:30Z 2021-07-26T02:44:47Z I Built A Gaming/D&D Table for My Rec Room

I've had a great spot in my rec room since I have moved into this house for a gaming table, and that has been a project that has been on my radar for the past two years. I thought I was going to get to that project during COVID last year, but that didn't quite come to fruition. With the advent my friends and I getting back together in person this spring, I was finally compelled to get the table built. 

The Table Concept

There are some really cool gaming tables online that I have seen. Some of them have raised or sunken play areas. Others have built in TV screens or plugs for computers. I looked at all of those as options, but that is not exactly what I wanted to do. My idea from the start was really to try and create the table you would find in that dungy tavern that so many of our RPG adventures start in. So that led me down the path of researching a farm table. My search put me at a blog called Tommy & Ellie, who built a great farm table and served as an excellent starting point for what I wanted to do. I'll also give a shout out to The Spruce Crafts, which is a superb blog for all sorts of FIY and home wood projects. 

One of the main things I wanted to accomplish with this table was to create something that was "extra wide". Most kitchen tables top out at around 38" wide, which doesn't leave much space on the table after you factor in your playing map, and player gear. With that in mind I wanted to use 2x12's for the extra width. (Word of note: 2x12's are not 12 inches wide!) 

]]> Matthew Supert tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1712462 2021-07-11T18:36:32Z 2021-07-11T18:36:43Z Trying to watch sports on TV is a nightmare

I don't watch a lot of sports, but it just so happened that this weekend there are two sporting events that I wanted to catch. The Wimbledon finals and also the Euro championship game. I watched the women's final yesterday afternoon on standard broadcast TV, NBC. I got up this morning, having a free day due to a rained out motorcycle ride and popped on NBC expecting to see the men's final broadcast. 

Was it on TV? No it wasn't. Bummer, but not the end of the world. I'll just pop on over to watch the Tour de France. Ohh, you know what, that isn't on broadcast TV either. That is playing on NBCSports network. The Euro championship this afternoon? That is on ESPN. What a nightmare. Wimbledon used to be aired on NBC's main broadcast channel for years and add to that, so was the Tour de France. All three networks were local news and your standard "Meet the Press" Sunday political shows. 

So, I went to dig around and figure out how I could stream these shows today. First off, there is no way I can see of just buying them pay-per-view style or subscribing to just a specific network. I have used SlingTV in the past but unfortunately their NBCSports and ESPN channels are on two different packages (Blue vs Orange). What? Come on guys. 

Knowing that the Olympics are coming up in a couple of weeks I always want to try and watch that as much as possible when it is on. Again, NBC is dropping the ball here and they only plan to broadcast the Olympics during primetime. 3-4 hours a night of just gymnastics and he occasional track and field match is embarrassing. Why would they not fill up their standard daytime programming with Olympic coverage? 

So I spent a good portion of this morning, browsing my options and I ended up getting a temporary subscription for Youtube TV. It is expensive, $65 but it includes ESPN, NBCSports and has the olympic channel. It also thankfully is a month to month subscription so I can cancel as soon as the olympics are over. 


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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1710504 2021-07-05T03:00:45Z 2022-06-25T16:10:57Z Ridelog: Out to Savanna


I had an opportunity to do an all day ride this past Saturday so I decided to test out a potential group ride route for MEWs out to Savanna, Illinois. The route was pretty good with an incredible section just north of Savanna, but I I had one of the closest near misses I have ever had on my motorcycle and it wasn't from a car, it was from another motorcyclist. I really try to not stereotype other riders but damn, some people shouldn’t be riding. This person was the stereotype bad Harley rider. Ape hangers, extra wide Highway pegs, jeans and a tank top. I passed his slow group on an open road and I think the 3-group he was in got pissed.

So they caught up to me and I was making a right hand turn on country road. I have my signal on and as I am about to make a right hand turn this guy passes me on my right in the right lane. If it wasn’t for my spider senses I think 9/10 that would’ve been a crash for most other people. I just couldn’t believe it.

Great ride otherwise. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1697787 2021-06-01T19:27:27Z 2021-06-23T21:40:20Z Videogaming: Stardew Valley - Everything I Hoped Animal Crossing Would Be.

Stardew Valley has been out for years at this point and I have heard nothing but good things about the game. My wife has been playing it for quite a while actually and it was on sale recently on Xbox for $8 so I decided to pick it up. I have played a number of the farm/life sim games over the years and I even really go into Animal Crossing Wild World back on the DS years back. 

Other than that though I have never really been captured by any of the life simulation games. I have played the Sims here and there and I have played some Harvest Moon games as well. Stardew has taken me by surprise though. It is quote simply one of the most relaxing and chill games I have ever played. It's too bad that it is not available on the Nintendo 3Ds because I really see it as an ideal portable game. 

The music, the atmosphere, the coloring is all there. I am only in my first year and I have made it to the autumn season, and I just love how each season in the game has a completely different vibe. What's more, is that there are no fail conditions as far as I know. You are completely free to tackle each task at your own pace and while the initial premise of the game is farming, that certainly does not have to be a priority item for you if you do not wish it to be. 

Perhaps one of my favorite features though straight out is that time doesn't pass when you log out. I know that this is a defining feature for Animal Crossing, but Animal Crossing is one of those games that demands your attention. If you aren't playing it daily it literally makes you feel bad when you miss a day. The life sim games have always been about playing them in short bursts for me. I might play and hour or two a week, play it for a while and then take months off before coming back again. 

I think that Stardew quite simply might be the perfect life sim game and is by far the most enjoyable I have ever played. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1686416 2021-05-02T23:17:54Z 2021-05-02T23:17:54Z Man, I really don't want to go back

The weather is finally starting to come around, people are getting fully vaccinated and I can already see the eagerness in most people's eyes to try and "get back to normal". Despite 2020 being full of different levels of stress for different people, I can't help but feel a bit more anxiety right now more than at any time back in 2020. I missed being able to go on vacation last year and also going out to dinner, but man, do I not want to go back. To be honest, I think I would rather take 2020 again than take pre-covid. I just really do not want to have to interact with people, like at all. 

You know what, last year was the first time in as long as I can remember that I didn't get a bad cold or the flu. I felt like there was something strangely comforting with being home and also knowing that everyone was at home. We all had a taste of seeing the world through the same lens there for a moment, regardless of what your income or social status was. I feel like some of that is going to be lost and in many cases people are trying so hard to get back to the "default" that any sort of learned habits are going to go completely out the window. 

:shrug:

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1671890 2021-03-29T02:32:55Z 2021-03-29T02:32:55Z Book Review: The Murder on the Links
The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another good book in the Hercule Poirot series, although this one isn't quite as brilliant as some of the others I have read. My real issue with this book isn't the mystery at hand. That follows the fairly standard Hercule Poirot "whodunit" formula with twist and turns. For the most part, this was a solid enough entry with that respect, although I did find myself parsing out who the murderer was fairly early on. 

My major issue with this book had to do with the Hastings character. His bungling of major points of evidence throughout the story broke much of the illusion for me. The fact that there was no legal repercussions for someone who lost evidence and then at a later point, potentially harbored a murderer really just doesn't make sense.

I did really enjoy the Giraurd character, mainly because it was fairly evident that he was meant to be a crude version of Sherlock Holmes. It was a nice jab at the two famous characters from this genre.

View all my reviews
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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1669620 2021-03-23T02:53:57Z 2021-03-23T02:53:57Z Reading: I Really Enjoy Hercule Poirot

I may have mentioned this before online, but the past year or so I have had a really hard time getting into books. One would think with the pandemic in 2020, that last year would have been the ideal time to really get some good reading done. Unfortunately, I really struggled last year to get into anything very deep. 

I was having the same trouble through the first couple months of this year as well, and Megan suggested that I may be in a bit of a rut simply with the types of books I was trying to read. Now, I typically like to read fiction, fantasy specifically, that will give me a bit of escape. I have been just trying to read the same type of thing over and over though and not making any real ground. While talking it came to me that I should dive back into some "whodunit" murder mysteries. I read some Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes stories a few years ago and I really enjoyed them, way more than I would have thought. In fact, Murder on the Orient Express has become one of my favorite books. 

I decided to pickup book #2 in the Poirot series, "The Murder on the Links". So far it has been a delight to read, and I have to laugh at the subtle stabs at Sherlock Holmes that seem to exist in the book.

That brings me though to a website that I want to recommend to everyone. If you have an ereader, I highly suggest you check out Standardebooks.org. It is site that takes public domain books, many of them from Project Gutenberg, re-formats them and puts a cover on the ebook. It is a really nice site and while it is not nearly as comprehensive as Gutenberg, there is a really nice collection of some common books there. I have linked below some books I have picked up there that I have already read and really enjoyed. 

Poirot Series (Books 1-3)

Sherlock Holmes (Books 1-8)

Martian Series (Books 1-4)


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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1664549 2021-03-11T22:25:29Z 2021-03-11T22:25:29Z D&D: Artbreeder.com - AI Generated profiles for D&D and other cool art

I came across what has to be one of the coolest website I have seen in a long time. It is called Artbreeder.com and it utilizes AI to morph and merge images together. You essentially input two parent images and it will create an offspring. There are several categories on the site that you and select from, so I presume the the AI system has been tweaked for each one to get the best results. As you can see from the image above, where I have the portrait system selected, there are some sliders for various features you can select. 

The results are algorithmic, so you don't have any control over the creation. This isn't drawing, but it is an easy way to get an endless amount of good imagery. I have found the portrait mode to be very useful and something you can easily kill a few hours just going down the rabbit hole on. 

The only quirk I have found with the portraits at least, is that they tend to favor very "soft" female features. You also have to pay a fee to upload your own images, which is understandable, if unfortunate. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1651152 2021-02-08T04:00:55Z 2021-02-13T16:33:36Z D&D: Testing Bibisco for D&D and Tabletop RPG Planning

I have spent a long time trying to find the right tool and system for campaign planning for D&D. I posted about my struggles and my approach back in 2019, and I have to say that since that time I never found a perfect setup.  I like to keep my session notes to paper as much as possible, and the Tül notebook has severed me really well, but with the past year going fully online for all of our D&D play, that has shifted my approach and perspective a bit. The notebook works great for my individual session planning, but has proven to be a bit harder to manage long term planning and tracking of multiple narrative arcs. 

I have tried a whole ton of different apps for the past couple of years, ranging from Evernote, to Apple Notes, to Onenote and more. I even tried online systems like World Anvil, Kanka and Obsidian Portal. All of them have left me "wanting" in different ways. 

OneNote was a strong contender for a while and there is an excellent template setup online. Unfortunately my work uses Office 365 and at least when I last checked this out in the spring, there wasn't a way to login to multiple accounts for OneNote on a single device, so writing and development became a bit hard. The OneNote template also looked gorgeous, but I found myself often times fiddling a bit too much with formatting and not actually "writing" the campaign out. 

I also looked quite a bit at the various online systems, such as World Anvil, etc. While I did like them, at the end of the day I just can't pay for another online service. They also never felt "quick enough" for me. I couldn't login and get to the page I wanted to fast enough to just "idea dump" when something came to my mind. 

What I have discovered over the past few weeks though is an application called Bibisco. I have found that it has a really nice breakdown of writing sections that works really well for campaign planning, breaking narrative elements into Scenes. This has worked out really nicely for how my brain approaches my D&D planning. There is too much to breakdown into a single blog post, so I have instead put together a video overview of how I have been using Bibisco over the past month or so. The software isn't perfect, and I try to identify some of its shortcomings, but it has been one of the better fits that I have found to date for D&D planning. 

If the developers take a few notes to improve some areas, it could really become an ideal world building application. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1639340 2021-01-12T22:08:16Z 2022-05-06T16:32:45Z D&D: Testing Out A New Way to Roll Stats - TicTacToe

I have never been a fan of point buy system for D&D stats. I feel it lends itself a bit too much leeway for those people who are obsessed with building the "perfect" character build. I am not saying it is wrong, just I like the idea of D&D having a bit of randomness in everything it does to make the outcomes exciting and unpredictable. Typically I use the Standard Array system, but that admittingly gets pretty boring. There is of course the standard roll and drop method too, where you roll 4d6 dice, and drop the lowest number. You do that six times and add up your scores to get your character's scores. That works fairly well, but it can really skew someone's stats if they end up with even two very high or very poor scores. 

I have seen this "TicTacToe" method online which I sort of like, which should give people an option to not feel "locked in" if their roll and drop doesn't go their way. 

Here is how I understand to do it. Do your standard 4d6 roll and drop the lowest. You do it 9 times instead of 6 and place it into a 3x3 grid in the order you rolled it, left to right, top to bottom. You can then select one row and one column of numbers. They can overlap, but you cannot have your row and column overlap your highest number. This should give you a bit more options for choice and compromise and not have to feel so locked into to just choosing six numbers. It might even have you weighing some options or compromise. Do you take a row that has on really high stat with two low ones, or do you take the other row with all three numbers more balanced? 

So in this example attached I chose the 2nd column and last row, resulting in 16, 15, 15, 12,  9, 8.

I could not choose the 1st column and law row, because that would result in two 16's, which are the highest numbers in this case. Thoughts on this system? 


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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1632671 2021-01-07T04:30:00Z 2021-01-07T03:27:47Z Videogaming: Spiritfarer

Every once in a while I come across a game, a book, a movie, or whatever that absolutely hits me emotionally. More often than not, it hits me in such as way that I had no idea that it was coming. Deadhouse Gates did that to me for books and Blade Runner did that to me for film. Off the time of my head I cannot say that I have been hit so emotionally before by a video game, at least in the sort of emotion that conveys sadness, melancholy, and resolution. 

Spiritfarer is that game for me. An incredibly gorgeous 2D side scroller that has you playings as a Spiritfarer, an entity that guides lost sprits to the Everdoor and to whatever lies beyond. I want to make sure that I convey this game to everyone and its impact without spoiling it, because part of the charm and part of the impact that to conveys to you is the story that unfold as you shepherd souls to the Everdoor. 

The Everdoor is a gate, and quite literally the gate to the afterlife, which lends one to ask, where does the game take place? It doesn't take place in the "living world", as it is made clear to you from the outset that not only are the inhabitants, but you too are in fact deceased. I would guess then that the world is a sort of purgatory or waiting room for the next life. Your job is to help the individuals you come across put closure to their lives and help them pass on.

It all sounds rather dark, but it is wrapped up into a beautiful Animal Crossing style package that presents to you whimsical and loving characters who are all represented as various animals. Keeping on the Animal Crossing theme a bit, there is a community building aspect to the game where you have to gather resources and build your residents homes. 

Where the game really gets to me though is in the story moments, the small snippets of dialog that occur between the Spiritfarer and the various inhabitants. You get a touch into all of the character's lives as they reflect upon their successes and failures when they were alive. It is very touching and each time when you finally shepherd your inhabitants to the Evertdoor to say their final farewell, the moment is bittersweet each time. What makes the game so good though, is that they are able to make each characters goodbye mean something. Some of these characters are easily lovable, while others were no necessarily good people during their life. They were mean, perhaps criminals and sometimes dishonest and failures. In the end though, the characters all seem real based upon how they approach their final moments at the Everdoor based upon all of their past life experiences. Some of them are grateful, some are relieved. Others view the experience with resolve or even outright indifference. It seems true either way and in the end the game tells you in no uncertain terms that the time will come for all of us to eventually say goodbye. It is sad, sometimes tragically so, but it is a lesson that we all need to confront eventually in our lives. 

I came out of this game really reflecting upon the experiences and time you get to have with everyone around you and there were times as I played this game, watching the Spiritrarer say goodbye to a companion, and I had to pause in the reflective and quiet moment. It makes you want to hug that loved one you have nearby because sometimes you never quite know when goodbye comes. 

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Matthew Supert
tag:blog.matthewsupert.me,2013:Post/1633064 2020-12-29T00:07:48Z 2020-12-29T00:07:48Z I Finally Decided To Pay For A Music Streaming Service

So I finally did it. I have been resisting for years to get into the reoccurring music payment services that are out there like Spotify and Apple Music. I just don't really want to get int oa $10 a month for eternity system that means I would lose all of my music if I decided to stop paying. For the $10 a month, I would much rather just purchase something to add to my music collection. 

I do pay for iTunes Match, which is $24 a year and absolutely fine for the price to add my existing music library to the cloud for streaming. I am actually surprised there aren't more services that do this. All that being said, I didn't actually pay for the service that everyone may have thought I would. So instead of purchasing Spotify or Apple Music, I instead went with a subscription to DI.FM. What the heck is that you might ask? 

DI.FM is an electronic music streaming radio network. It is a radio network, so there is no music that you download. It is a combination of live radio shows and programed radio shows/playlists with a huge variety of electronic music genres, I think there is something like 50 sub-genre stations to choose form. 

Why would I have done this you ask? Well, it really boils down to the way that I like to listen to my music, The vast majority of my time I am listening to music as a background ritual, either while I am working or doing other hobbies. Of that time while listening, I more often than not want to listen to music that doesn't have any lyrics to it or isn't intrusive. I listen to quite a bit of classical and jazz music in addition to electronic because of that. The thing is, is I don't really need to keep that on my person in almost any scenario, except one, which I will get to in a bit. 

My actual music library is mostly a collection of a few selected albums with lyrics that I really like, with the rest being a goto selection of albums and tracks that fit my original "background playing" intent. The Skyrim soundtrack is always on my playlist by the way. 

The one scenario where I may want to listen to something more comes into play with my motorcycle. Those who know me know that I wasn't a huge fan of having a radio on my motorcycle and up until last year I didn't have one. I didn't even have a bluetooth headset to listen to music to while I rode. That changed a bit when I got my new bike past year and it came with one year of SiriusXM on it. Now, I actually liked SiriusXM quite a bit. Having commercial free radio accessible anywhere in the country was really nice and I was very close  to paying for SiriusXM up until a few months ago, after my subscription expired. The thing is that SiriusXM is kinda expensive. It costs $17 a month, and sure you can find some deals online that take it down to $60 for the year, but that involved haggling and in some cases playing the phone game with them much like you would with Comcast for your cable subscription price. I just have zero interest in doing that. I really only listen to 4-5 stations on SirusXM in any real way, so I couldn't justify that price and hassle. 

Now if I could get it in both my car, my motorcycle and online streaming for $15 a month, I might consider that, but the pricing just doesn't compete against even Spotfy or Apple Music. What SiriusXM did though was solidify how I like to listen to music and that is when I began the rabbit whole of looking for some online streaming services. TuneIn, Pandora, etc. all had a good look. I kept coming back to DI.FM though and what is nice about them is I could stream the entire service for free with commercials. I finally gave in here this past week and decided to go ahead and get a subscription, which only cost me $4 a month, which is more than reasonable for the what they offer. They even offer integration to other services and hardware like Sonos or receivers that have vTuners in them, so that may be worth exploring a bit more. 


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Matthew Supert