Laying on the Horn

Lester

As I write this, my spouse is in the hospital. (Nothing currently life-threatening, just severe systemic pain from a common localized infection.) She’s been there pretty much the whole time since three days ago. It seems likely she may get out tomorrow.

I’m holding down the fort, which mainly means keeping our dogs from stressing in her absence.

My biggest problem right now is trying to divert my autistic hyperfocus from being pissed off that, because the hospital didn’t actually admit her as an inpatient, our health insurance won’t pay for the over-the-counter painkillers they’re giving her, and as of yesterday that meant $500+ in debt for Aleve. I’m expecting about $1k by the time she’s out.

It’s infuriating, because we’re helpless under American healthcare. And when I’m furious, my brain fixates on figuring out ways to make someone responsible regret their choices.

(Example: While I was teaching Kate to drive, we came to a complicated two-way stop involving a Wisconsin state highway that makes a right turn into downtown Elkhorn. Kate’s extremely cautious. The guy behind us laid on the horn. I said, “Oh, hell no. Put this car in Park.” And I went back to explain to him, in detail, smiling politely, the facts in those two sentences. After a few minutes, he was begging me to please just go back to our car and leave. I took my own sweet time strolling the distance.)

I’ve been too tired for the past few days to distract myself with work. Here’s hoping for a little relief today, by focusing on Children of the Elder Sign Kickstarter progress.

But, good god, once Jen’s back and settled, several somebody’s are going to discover just how annoying a pissed-off, hyperfocused retiree can be.

Swords & Spellbookmarks Turns Gold!

Lester

The Bookmark No HP RPG is proving to be the “Little Engine That Could,” in that it just keeps chugging along with best-sellers. Most recently, the Swords & Spellbookmarks! setting hit Gold Best-Seller status on DriveThruRPG.

This despite the fact that I haven’t had much chance to pay existing settings the attention they deserve. I hope to rectify that soon with some three-act adventures in the various genres, and a few solo adventure cards are already underway.

In any case, thank you to everyone who has taken a shining to this little system.

Bookmark the Apocalypse Turns Silver!

Lester

I’m happy to report that the Bookmark the Apocalypse! sourcebookmark is now a DriveThruRPG Silver Best-Seller! This sourcebookmark adds a Humanity Attribute to character creation, and exciting vehicle chase scene rules, along with game host suggestions for defining your apocalypse and randomizing three-act adventure seeds.

Additionally, the Children of the Elder Sign and King of Elfland’s Daughter sourcebookmarks are now available there in printed playing card format. The Children of the Elder Sign setting puts players in the roles of half-human/half-monstrous offspring of Lovecraftian gods or monstrosities, fighting to maintain their humanity in an inimical world. The King of Elfland’s Daughter setting is based on Lord Dunsany’s classic fantasy about longing and magic on the boundaries between Earth and Elfland.

You can get all three on the cheap as part of the Compleat Bookmark No HP RPG bundle in either Print+PDF or PDF-only format.

 

To a House Mouse

Lester

I had to kill a tiny mouse today. Yesterday it kept scrambling across the back of my desk, peeking out from around my monitor, and I could hear it gnawing on things it shouldn’t be gnawing on.

I hate snuffing out their little lives, or adding any measure of suffering to this world. But left alone, they leave droppings all over and can gnaw through a home’s electrical wiring.

This one was too small for a quick-kill trap, so I had to set out a glue trap overnight, and this morning take the stuck, panicking little thing outside for execution. And I’m left grieving its short, innocent time on this earth.

This is not how I would make a world. If there’s an intelligent design behind it, I’m unimpressed.

As an elegy, let me borrow some words from Robert Burns:

“But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

“Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!”