The Beer Garden

I am delighted to announce that Silverfox has joined us here as a Moderator, and the Tech Expert of the Terran Empire LOTGD game, which is in the midst of being set up.  We want to add some modules to spice things up before the official opening, but I just wanted to let you know it’s being done, and should be ready to go soon.  Though I must caution you things will keep changing as we find good modules, and it morphs into a version based on my Terran Empire universe.

Frank’s only had the first Mitaban dip and three doses of antibiotic so far, but it already seems to be helping … the scabs on his head are smaller, and his neck wasn’t raw and bloody this morning.  This is wonderful!  I wonder if a Pagan can nominate a veterinarian for sainthood …

I’d love to see him with all his hair again, but I’ll be quite happy if his skin just clears up — I can always make him a nice handspun wool sweater and cap for winter!

Of all the dogs we’ve had, I think our current two have the best personalities, and surprisingly enough, they’re both pit bull mixes — yes, I suppose I had been affected by media reports, even though I know the primary reason dogs "go bad" is due to bad owners, with the next reason being abuse by someone else, usually kids who may or may not know better.

May Frank continue to improve, and may whatever deity Dr. Lewis worships pour blessings upon him!

Yeah, I know I said this was turning into a LotGD blog instead of a personal one, but I simply have to share this good news!

Took the puppy to the vet today (the earliest we could get in) for a skin problem he’s had for a while, but only got us concerned about six weeks ago.  (We thought it was a simple allergy till then, and got rid of everything we thought it might be, starting with that [expletive deleted] Chinese melamine-contaminated food, then Chinese dog toys, then anything plastic].

I was very pleasantly impressed by both Dr. Lewis and how well Frank(furter) behaved. The problem turns out to be not all that uncommon with pit bulls, pit mixes, and bulldogs … demodectic mange, with secondary bacterial infection.

It sounds terrible, but he says it’s not difficult to cure; I came home with a dip and two antibiotics, plus a dog food recommendation that caused a special stop at the grocery store. According to him, I should see an improvement in less than two weeks, when I’m to give him a second dip. I’m really hoping so (please, Lord Anubis!), ‘cause the poor little guy looks awful, and it has to be both painful and itchy.

Military base vets are quite good, since their primary job is taking care of the base’s working dogs — the rest are to keep them in practice — and I’m just glad we have access to this one!

I want my version of LotGD to have a distinct Terran Empire feel, but the Empire isn’t a classical-fantasy world, which makes for some difficulties in translation.  Some are minor, such as the races, with a couple either direct equivalents (human/human, felyne/Irschchan) and at least one would only need minor tweaks (troll/Traiti).  

Even the Healers can be equated to doctors or med techs, given how advanced Imperial medicine is.  But in this vein comes a (even the!) major problem: time in the equivalents of Heaven and Limbo/Hell, with the respective deities, has an effect on game stats, plus the very common phenomenon of resurrection.  Divine intervention has happened in the Empire, very rarely, and there’s been one case of resurrection (briefly), but in the standard LotGD game, both are everyday matters.  That’s a big problem, and I’m not sure how to deal with it.

Some of the races/specialties use magic, or what acts like it; that could be equated to Talent.  That’s rare in all the TE races except Irschchans (and Sandemans, who don’t really like it), but it would make sense for warriors attracted to the world of the game to have a higher-than-average number of Talented.

Other fudges could be using high tech in at least some of the places that usually use magic, like the dragon’s eye in Ze Gypsy Tent becoming a remote camera or real-time satellite image.  Flying mounts could be null-grav vehicles, and so on.

This is going to be fun!  I have genetic engineering to play with — though it’s illegal in the Empire except for medically necessary purposes, there’ve been several groups that have gone out-Empire to play, like the Shapers of the Sandeman human-variant race.  So there are undoubtedly other worlds not discovered as of my last canonic story, or that weren’t relevant to mention.  Methinks I feel a story coming on … well, at least once the vet can solve Frank(furter)’s skin problem.  Poor kid!

Frank is our mini-Dachshund/pit bull puppy who is having a nasty rash with hair loss … I personally think it at least got started with the [expletive deleted] Chinese-tainted food, but it’s getting worse, not better, even though we’ve taken both dogs off everything on the recall list.  Yes, I am severely ticked! 

Since this has proved to be no more successful than my previous attempts at a diary/journal in any form, it’s undergoing a major change.

For now, at least, it’s going to be a place to discuss the setup and running of our version of the Legends of the Green Dragon text-based on-line game.  (For me to run or even play it, it has to be text-based; I’m stuck with a 24-K dial-up.)

Anyway, I’ll be giving She of Many Nics posting privileges as soon as she registers and I know which one she wants to use here.  Comments will remain open to registered users; in fact, if anyone’s interested in the game, we welcome comments, since that may well improve our version. 

Especially this early! I don’t like having it dark when I get up (6 AM or a bit earlier) almost all year, and going back to dead-of-winter time again (7:20 sunrise here) really stinks!

This is supposed to save energy, it’s said, but I have to run the lights an hour longer in the morning, so it doesn’t save me a bloody thing.  As for the longer light at night?  OK, makes me feel a bit guilty for going to bed at my usual time ‘cause it’s still light, but I’m not doing anything outside at 9 PM, so the light then is no help.  (It’s too durn hot in summer!  Outside work is early in the day, when it’s cooler.)

I’ll admit I don’t mind too much if it’s later in the year, like late April to mid-May, when it’s still going to be light in the morning, but doggone it, early March is going too far! 

Since it’s well known that I love venison, and several of the hunters in the area like to hunt but no one wants to butcher the deer (or likes the meat, I’m not sure), come deer season, I occasionally get one as a gift.  One hunter got a small one the last day of muzzleloader season, and hung it up in the barn last night after asking me if I wanted it.

So today Mr. Empire and I (mostly him, as usual when "I" do something he thinks he can do faster or better) skinned it out, and I started butchering it.  Got about half of it done, part of which is in the crockpot with mushrooms; the rest is in the fridge, waiting till tomorrow.  Fortunately for my venison-loving taste buds, Mr. E doesn’t like Delaware deer, so it’s mine, all mine! 

Also dug out some curtains Audrey got tired of and gave me, and used some of them to make up a set for the doorway between my office and the utility room, in hopes of cutting down the cold draft on my back I usually cuss quietly about all winter.  He thinks I should use the rest to make a set for the doorway between my office and the kitchen, then pick up a ceramic heater for the office so I’m not cold all winter.  I’m not used to being warm when it’s cold out, but it might be a pleasant change, so I think I shall do it.

After a fairly warm and mostly pleasant week, we had our first frost last night, and it actually hit freezing early this morning.  Prediction is for another frost tonight, but not quite as cold.  At least this year, it’s about the right time for frost, not as early as it has been the last few.

And it should make the fall leaves a lot brighter, which will be nice too!

Not much in the way of yard sales today, which wasn’t particularly surprising; it is getting late for them.  I did find a very nice blue winter car-coat (I wonder if that name for the length between a jacket and full-length coat is still in use?) and a heavy wool vest, both of which I think will be most welcome soon!

Also, I’d picked up a pair of earrings at Happy Harry’s (er, Walgreen’s, when it gets all the signs changed), and for a wonder, they didn’t bother me — I’ve had a metal allergy for decades, so either it’s decided to go away, or this brand simply doesn’t trigger it.  So I went back today to get a couple more, found a boxed set of 2 pairs of earrings and a necklace that matched one on sale for $5, but when I got to the register, they only charged me $3.50!  I’m going back tomorrow for some more — the original price, when I removed the sale sticker, was $9.99!  I like that kind of sale, I do. 

All in all, a pretty decent, if chilly, day.

This evening I was playing the "killer" version I’ve mentioned before, when I got game-mail from one of the admins asking for my opinion of their version.  I told him the truth — with, I fear, a bit more bluntness than usual, because of the shortness of the messages allowed.  He thanked me for the truth, then all of a sudden 10,000 gold appeared on my character’s status panel, followed by a note that it was a thank-you for being truthful and encouragement to remain so!

I was floored.  I thought sure he’d be offended, but instead he said he’d adjust the Forest Fights to take my input into consideration (such as slumming-only when my Gryphon is exhausted, running from anyone even one level higher, never ever thrillseeking without the gryphon, and not even being too sure about fighting monsters that’re supposedly at my level.)  And I pointed out that at Level 1, I’d spent enough gems on hit points that I was at 150, which is 140 over standard for that level.

Oh, and I also mentioned being happy about the Spelling Bees, since for me they’re easy money.  Being a copy-editor/proofreader has some advantages! 

His reaction to my comments improved my opinion of the game considerably — or at least of its admin staff!  We’ll see about the game over the next few days — it’d be nice if I didn’t have to play so dratted defensively!  I don’t mind taking chances, but even in a game, I’m not suicidal.

For what I think is the first time since my character in the LotGD game I described yesterday made his first dragon kill and started up the levels again, he survived an entire game day!  This time he’s at the 3 DK, Level 5 stage, having spent practically all the gems he’s found on more hit points.  Normal progress is 10 hp per level, and at 5 he has 150, I leave it to your imagination how tough this game is!

And I had to use a number of tricks to get through even as well as I did — namely by the skin of his teeth!  Now I’ll grant you that characters die, temporarily or even permanently, in every fantasy game — but this one is a killer!  And a one-town version of the game, too, which means not a whole lot of variety.

I have got to start working on my own game, or even better, go back to the one She of Many Names and I were working on together before my then-computer crashed and she got frantically busy at work.  We’re both writers, so we try for a certain degree of logic in our game.  For one example:

In LotGD as originally set up — at least in a game I played on the LotGD home server, till I got discouraged — when you kill the dragon, you lose everything.  OK, I can go along with losing anything you have with you, except possibly your mount if it’s smart enough to run away.  But what you have elsewhere, like in the bank or your house, would logically still be there.

Ah, well, this blog is no more intended to discuss philosophy of game design than it is to discuss politics or religion, though all can and will be mentioned at times, as you’ve seen.  To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, this blog is about what interests me!