Session 1 - A Very Bad Day at the Beach

I have the party all set. There are eight 4th level characters. The quick details are: 

1. William, Ranger
2. Gerwinder, Paladin
3. Alex, Bard
4. Rolf, Fighter
5. Misha, Magic User
6. Garvin, Cleric
7. Alice, Elf
8. Bartholomew, Theif

Their goal is to land on the beach of the island and move south, tracing the shoreline. They are looking for furred animals, freshwater sources, and any trails or paths that hint at the location of the shrine of Terminus. Their ship, the Zephyr will check in on them from time to time. The captain of the ship has found a nice place to put the explorers down, a rock shelf with very shallow water. Due to the wind and currents, the captain has to put the starboard side of the ship closest to land. 

The party briefly explored the beach while a group of 4 sailors brought their gear to shore using a large rowboat. Two of the sailors were left on the shore to watch the gear while everyone else waded out to the ship to help with the mules and horses. 

The ship used a sling to lower 4 mules down to the water. It took two people to settle the mules and get them wading ashore. Gerwinder and Rolf awaited the first horse, Ezekiel the warhorse to be lowered to the water. 

At that moment, the crew on the deck sees a surge of water coming towards them. There are sea serpents bearing down on the party in the water. 

Since no one is surprised due to the range, the captain bellows orders to raise the anchor and drop the oars in the water. Bedlam ensues because of the men in the water near the ship, the horses on the deck and the sling is still in the way of the oars. Only the port-side rowers get into the water. The ship is backward with the port side facing out to sea. 

The party loses the first round of initiative. The first sea serpent lashes out at the third mule but accidentally bites a sailor between it and the mule. Satiated, it turns away as the party is knocked to and fro. The first two mules make for the beach taking Garvin the Cleric and Bartholomew the Theif with them. Masha is pushed away by surge while the fourth mule and Elf use the same push to move away from the beasts.  

The Ranger, Fighter, Paladin, and Bard splash forward to meet the second sea monster with swords. Everyone else tries to get out of the water with the mules. 

The party loses initiative again and the sea serpent tries to devour the mule. The mule takes 4 points of damage and cannot land a hit. Only Rolf and Alex are in range to strike and manage to roll a 20 and 19, doing a total of 11 points of damage. 

The Serpent is hell-bent on taking the mule and stays in place giving Gerwinder and William time to close. It mistakes the sailor as an attacker and bites him. Onboard the ship, the captain gets the crew moving and the ship rows backward and sideways a bit.  

The mule thrashes away while the serpent finishes off the sailor. The Bard and Ranger miss, while the Paladin hits with another 20 for 7 more points of damage. Rolf barely manages to hit but rolls enough damage to kill the sea serpent. The first serpent has disappeared in the distance while the third is confused by the thrashing oars and combat. 

The last sea serpent rushes behind the party and they manage to wack it a few times. 

The sea serpent manages to grab the mule but takes a series of fatal blows for its effort. 

The tired party stumbles ashore. While not mentioned in the above notes, the party has taken minor damage from being battered by the surf. They don't have a lot of good options as the ship has pulled back away from the shelf. The first sea serpent is circling the corpses in the water. No one wants to wander out there and the ship doesn't have any weaponry. The crew does have slings and bows, but the crew is not confident in their own abilities considering the serpent could attack the ship and sink it. The bard and ranger have taken a couple of potshots with arrows, but it's ineffective. 

The captain and the explorers have a frustrating shouting conversation across the water. The explorers will take the two sailors with them south. They will leave the horses on the ship. The party takes stock of its resources and realizes how lucky they were. No one was wearing armor in that fight. 

They have their supplies, three mules, and two extra sailors in tow. The mules were meant to carry two large tents, water, and food, plus some equipment like lanterns, oil, firewood, and a handful of spears. Additionally, they have 8 saddles, 8 saddlebags full of supplies, and a rowboat. It's beginning to look like they have too much stuff. 

They decide to set a watch for the afternoon and set up one 8 man tent for the night. Since there are two extra members of the party, setting watches is easy and the night passes uneventfully. 

By morning, things are looking better. Bartholomew, Alex, and the two sailors have cobbed together a 3 or 4 man tent out of horse blankets, a pair of reasonably serviceable backpacks from some saddlebags, and hatched a plan to cache the saddles and extra supplies with one of the two 8 man tents. 

Two serpents are circling in the sea. Maybe more because the corpses are all gone. The ship nowhere to be seen.  

Also on the downside, someone has named all of the mules Barth-a-mule. The Bard pointed at the Paladin and she muttered an ungodly oath that it wasn't her. She also roundly curses her armor and the lack of a horse. These are real problems, she can't walk fast in plate armor and they have far too much gear for 10 men and 3 mules to carry easily. 

The Cleric, Theif, and Bard urge the party to stay in place one more day and night while they try to get a handle on all of the gear they have to transport.

Antiquity Tuesday - The Sarcina Revisited

Back in September of 2021, I wrote about the sarcina as an alternative to a backpack. It's a stick carried over the shoulder by a Roman legionary. The sarcina came into its own around 107 BC, when the statesman Gaius Marius pushed for a professional paid army for the Republic. And it's been around ever since. 

Marius's goal was to eliminate the dependency of the army on a baggage train. To this end, all carts, and wagons were eschewed except when absolutely necessary. The average Roman soldier didn't travel by horse, they walked and carried everything they needed on their backs. While the Marian Reforms meant to eliminate the baggage train, it did not eliminate horses and sometimes the troops used donkeys or mules for support. 

Being that every rule has an exception, there was the Legio X Equestris, or 10th Mounted Legion which did travel by horse. In a strange case of history rhyming without repeating, there exists the 10th Mountain Division. Based out of New York, the 10th specializes in mountain warfare and makes limited use of vehicles and equipment like artillery. Being specialized in moving troops and equipment without support places the 10th at the forefront of humanitarian deployments. 

While I'm revisiting the sarcina, I want to compare what a Roman soldier would carry to what a D&D character would have. 

A soldier would have his sandal-like boots, leg wraps, a tunic, a cloak, a scarf, lorica type armor, a gladius or short sword, a dagger, a shield, and a bag to carry it, a helmet, and possibly some darts or pilums or caltrops, plus his sarcina. For some reason, when it came to darts, pilums, wolves, and caltrops, they were carried in threes.  

From that list, we can remove all of the clothing which is normal and customary. That leaves the following list (with weights) for soldiers in combat: 

Shield 100 cns or 10 lbs
Lorica 200 cns or 20 lbs
Gladius 30 cns or 3 lbs
Dagger 10 cns or 1 lbs
Helmet 0 probably counted with the armor
Darts 10 each or 1 lbs
or Pilum 20 each or 2 lbs

D&D seems to get these weights correct most of the time. No one thing would have a standard weight as they would scale to the wearer. A lorica is typically 11 kg or 22 lbs, which almost matches the list. So a Roman soldier would be carrying about 37 or so pounds in a combat setting. Where D&D slides is in the armor types slowing the base rate of movement down. The Romans ability to move and to maneuver was pretty much the gold standard in antiquity until they met eastern forces like the Huns and Seleucids. Armor wasn't much of a factor in speed of movement. 

But this essay is about the carrying capacity of a sarcina. So what is in one? A lot: 

satchel 20 cns or 2 lbs
cloak bag 20 cns or 2 lbs
shield bag 30 cns or 3 lbs
spare tunic 10 cns or 1 lbs
a pot 10 cns or 1 lbs
a mess kit (called patera) 10 cns or 1 lbs
a bag with 3 days of food 60 cns or 6 lbs.
iron rations 
a bedroll 70 cns or 7 lbs
a pickaxe 100 cns or 10 lbs
a turf cutter 70 cns or 7 lbs
a saw 50 cns or 5 lbs
a sickle 10 cns or 1 lbs
3 wolves (a type of spike) 15 cns or 1.5 lbs
a basket 
a water container 20 cns or 2 lbs
tinder kit 10 cns or 1 lbs
toiletries 
personal effects 

Some of these items have an unclear weight or mass. A basket would have been wicker and those weigh next to nothing. Toiletries and personal effects were probably less than 50 cns or 5 lbs all combined.  It's attested that those with too many toiletries or personal effects were roundly mocked by hardcore soldiers. Before Marius, some soldiers had a slave (or if you prefer, a worker with a job and no pay) in tow just to rub, perfume and oil a soldier before and after combat.  

The iron rations were a lamentable and dubious item. Bucellatum, as the Romans called it was hardly edible. Losing a tooth to the biscuit was a common war wound. Soldiers were actually called bucellarii or "biscuit eaters". Let's call it 2 lbs. or 20 cns.  

There are a couple of standout items on that list. The bags were made of leather or hide and heavy. They provided some structure to the sarcina so they were also necessary. 

All told, without the mysterious items without weights, the average Legionary was packing 50 lbs or 500 cns in the sarcina plus the 37 pounds of weapons and armor. Surprisingly, that is in the realm of what modern soldier carries on a good to a great day. 

What is interesting about that list is what is missing. The Romans had a great road system with mile markers. They also knew the lay of their own land. This meant that they didn't remotely carry as much water as a modern soldier. So long as they weren't going the wrong direction, they knew where the next stream, spring or well was. In foreign lands, they would have scouts looking for such things. 

The other thing that is missing from the list is a tent. The Romans had 8 or 10 man tents called a contubernium. There is no way for a man to carry one. Basically, they would set up camp with what they had and if necessary move the tents to the camp later. 

That sounds pretty poor, but if you think about what the sarcina is, it provides a solution. It's a pole with 3 different bags, a tunic, and a cloak. Two of them put together could be cobbled into a makeshift tent using the cloaks, shields, and bags. A Roman shield at its smallest is 2 feet by 3 feet and could be as big as 3 by 4 feet. The bag is bigger than that so the shield fits. While I wouldn't want to sleep in the snow with such a ramshackle tent, it's doable in three seasons. 

Now looking at a typical D&D character, they should be carrying just as much as a Roman soldier, but in a backpack. And judging by my players, they often don't carry that much by half. The players never think to bring a pickaxe, a turf cutter, a shield bag, or any of the other stuff a real person would need. Some of them think a 10-foot pole is ungainly. 

What I find amusing is, a lump of 1600 cns worth of gold is only about the size of a couple of two-liter bottles of pop. "Soda", to you demi-humans. That would totally fit in a backpack, but your spine would scream. This is another case of needing some other method to move something. Neither a sarcina nor backpack would help much in moving that much coin. 

This isn't to drag down the idea of coins to pounds for encumbrance, it actually proves the system works. And reasonably well. The flaw is in the idea that treasures would be limited to gold coins. I think everyone has had that campaign where the party ignores copper pieces because they aren't worth enough to pick up. 

The other thing is the dubious nature of iron rations.

But those are essays for another day. 

News From The Home Front - We Have Ceilings!

I can't believe how long this journey has been. We have a completion date of mid-March to early April. We finally have enough of a house that I can start thinking about returning home. I took a panoramic photo in the middle of what will be our living room. 

We are slowly making progress. 

Mapping Monday and Session 0 - Mark of Terminus

I ordered Into the Wild by Todd Leback aka Third Kingdom Games. I've really meant to use it sooner than now. Over the weekend, I rolled up some OSE characters and got brewing. 

I had to develop my own map, which is plenty large enough for a long series of play sessions. 

As per normal, the setting is my own, based on Rome. This is a rough map based on the island of Corsica (EDIT - no, it's not). The red hexes are 30-mile hexes, the sub hexes are six miles because I really have a rough time with scale. I am using Worldographer for the mapping and somehow botched my math. I'm no stranger to screwing up math. Corsica is 114 miles from north to south while this map shows it as over 150 miles. (EDIT - This is true, but I scrolled down too far on my map and I am looking at Sardinia, not Corsica. You can ignore the next sentence.) 

I think I goofed on the proportions of each hex, which per Worldographer is 46.18 tall by 40 wide. Still, I like it. It's based on the island of Corsica but is a fantasy version of it. So math can take a hike. 

The red hexes are an overlay created with my
DriveThruRPG offering, The Hex Pack.

The characters have a couple mission targets. Item one, restore the lost Western Marker of Terminus. Item two, map the region so as to find the best place to hunt rock seals. Third, it would be handy if sources of freshwater were known. 

Since this is a test mission, the characters have been dropped by a lembus, a ship type similar to a trireme. They are meant to carry men or cargo. This one is named the Zypher, however, at some point in the recent past, it was used for cattle. The party has been bothered by seasickness and the smell of cattle sparked a new secret name for the ship, "The Heifer". They hate it. 

The party will start on the northeastern point of the island. The party of 8 adventures is not the typical group having a paladin, a cleric of a different sect from the paladin and thief who annoys everyone by aggrandizing theft. The only thing the 8 agree on is they hate sea travel and want off the ship. 

The party's initial goal is to work their way down the eastern side of the island, with the Zypher popping in to check on them. They built a small hut at their landing point and will proceed south with only two pack mules in support. They do not have the supplies or capacity to climb mountains, so not every hex will be explored this time around. 

If the party is successful, they will meet the Zypher in a week or so on the southeastern point of the island. If unsuccessful, the Zypher will scout the coast looking for survivors. 

Wish them luck! 

Book Review - Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

Title: Inhibitor Phase
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Year: 2021
Pages: 496 pages
Print Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Audible Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Inhibitor Phase is Alastair Reynolds' fourth book in the Revelation Space saga. The war against the Inhibitors was not going well, leaving humanity with two options, fight and die or run and hide. We meet Miguel de Ruyter, a failed politician of the Hollow Sun. Miguel's days are numbered, he self-selected for a diabolical one-way mission. 

Hollow Sun is one of the last bastions of humanity as the Inhibitors have hunted down and destroyed all human habitats. To protect their home, to protect one of the last outposts of mankind, Miguel must destroy a light hugger loaded with sleeping humans. Hollow Sun has no capacity for more people, they are just barely holding on. As the ship goes down, Miguel suffers a bout of compassion and picks up a lifeboat. 

And the trap is sprung. Join Miguel on a grand adventure to destroy the Inhibitors hunting mankind across all of Revelation Space. 

This particular story plays fast and loose with the timeline of the prior 3 books, something that the author mentions in the introduction. Rather than a completion of the other three books, this is a mythological tale where some logic has to be put aside to tell. 

You can try a search for it on Abebooks. Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds on Abebooks.

Designing Swag - Coffee Mugs

Over the past 18 months, I've been trying to come up with a way to fund my website. Redbubble.com came to mind. 

Right now I have a few offerings over there. As I design these things, I place an order to make sure the quality and value is there. So far, I've ordered a few mugs and some notebooks. I use the mugs everyday, but they are not without some flaws. 

The mugs retail at about $16.00 each, which I feel is a little high. When Redbubble runs sales or if you order more than one, the price comes down to about $12 or 14 bucks. 

One of the flaws is that the logo is not even on the cup. It's close but not quite centered. I'm looking to fix that but since I lost my files, I haven't been able to get the time and redo the image. 

Click here to see it on Redbubble. 

I also have the same mug in pure white. I'm not sure which one I like best. 

All links go to the Redbubble order page. Each mug holds 11 oz. (325 ml) and are 3.2" (8.2 cm) around, not including handle. They are dishwasher and microwave safe. 

Five Point Friday - January 28th, 2022

Today's Five Point Friday is history-themed. 

Point 1: I picked up copy of Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials. I love this version of B/X. It was offered as a Kickstarter a long time a go. I happily picked up a copy at a local store, but really want the whole set. 

Well, now it will be available via Kickstarter near the end of Feburary. I can't wait to get my hands on the whole deal. I had thought it would happen some day in 2019 or 2020. 2021 was too challenging to me. But now in 2022, I will get my hard copy.  

Point 2: OSE features dozens of charcter classes including gnomes, elves, duergar, and svirfnevlin. 

Did you know that in Iceland, these types of creatures are called the Huldufolk, the hidden people? Nearly 50% of the population currently believe that the Huldufolk might exist. 

It isn't just a hokey belief, they actually redirected road construction to avoid a Huldufolk settlement. There is something dangerous about the Huldufolk. That danger apparently doubles when you introduce machinery into the mix. Dynomite is apparently right out. 

Here is an interesting article from the BBC on the Huldufolk. If you want something more polished, check out the Lore podcast episode 5, "Under Construction." Researched, written, and produced by Aaron Mahnke, it details the same events of the BBC article.

A imagined likeness of Lars
Posena from 1500 AD

Point 3: Lars Porsena, King of Clusium. As an Etruscan king, most of Lars Porsena's history comes to us via the Romans. We know that King Porsena lived in what would become the modern city of Chiusi, he minted coins with his likeness and we might know where his tomb is. So, he was a real person. 

But the Romans played him out like an evil villain most of the time. 

The Roman were excellent narrators of history, however they are not without their flaws. Rome was sacked by the Gauls on July 18th, 390 BC. It was a Thursday. This sacking destroyed the historial records of the Romans and allowed future historians to rewrite their own history as they saw fit. They modified their humble beginings to mirror the Greeks and not surprisingly, these "historical" stories make the Romans the first of all people to do anything of note. 

Since Lars Porsena was around about 200 years before the first sack of Rome, he has become "unhitched" in time. We don't know when Porsena really ruled, but the Romans tell us it about 508 BC. Maybe on a Friday. But probably not. 

This is an Ertuscia coin. Note the Janus like head.
It's called a dupondius and the Romans used it, too. 

One of the funny things about history and Lars Porsena is how little people change over time. Lars appears on Rome's doorstep in support of the deposed Roman king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. The Romans had shifted to a republic due to the Tarquinian king's poor conduct. The Romans seriously hated all kings after him, King Lars Porsena included. 

There is the epic story of Gaius Mucius Scaevola, a Roman citizen hell bent on breaking Lars Porsena's seige of Rome. Gaius was an assassin, a would be King-Slayer. 

Here is where it gets funny. Gaius arrived in the seige camp ready for murder. However, being about 500 BC, he didn't have a picture of the king. He had no idea who he was after. Since this was payday, King Lars dispatched his paymaster to distribute cash and prizes. And as per normal, this paymaster was dressed as King Lars. 

Wait? What? 

The King forced a follower to dress like him and watched that person distribute paychecks, to make sure that his minions were suitably appreacative of the pay they had worked so hard to earn. Only to be rewarded with the scene of his imposter-king paymaster getting knifed to death by someone in the crowd. 

Has anyone seen The Office? This is exactly something Michael would do. My PCs would totally do this. D&D, Star Frontiers, doesn't matter. My players would wack the wrong guy for fun. 

This is why I love history so much. The story is supposed to be about the evil of kings, the heroism and determination of the Romans, the love of the Eternal City, yada-yada-yada. 

Instead, if you turn the story a tiny bit, you get comedy and humor. Which was probably not lost on the Romans themselves. 

Point 4: I resevered Point 4 for Sci-fi. So, I would be remiss if I didn't mention episode 5 of the Book of Boba Fett. This is hands down the best episode of the series. Because it is missing all of the main characters. I couldn't like it more for that. You can skip every episode up to the Fifth Episode and be fine with it. 

Point 5: Something about nothing at all... hmm. I've rambled enough I think. At some point, you just need to end a good yarn. 

Book Review - Aurora Rising (The Prefect) by Alastair Reynolds

Title: Aurora Rising (aka The Prefect) 
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Year: 2007
Pages: 428 pages
Print Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Audible Rating: N/A 

Welcome to the Glitter Band, a series of thousands of orbital habits around Epsilon Eridani. In the Revelation Space series, the planet Yellowstone is the starting point or key place for every novel. In the Prefect series, Alastair Reynolds skews the perspective by focusing on the myriad habitats orbiting the star and police force named the Panoply that is charged with keeping them safe. 

In the Prefect or Aurora Rising, as the title was renamed a few years back, Prefect Tom Dreyfus begins his quest to maintain the safety of the Glitter Band's rights by investigating polling fraud. The situation was more dire than Dreyfus understood as the investigation sparks to mass murder to cover up something entirely different. Dreyfus assembles a team of Prefects to get to the bottom of these heinous crimes. 

Dreyfus and the other officers from the Panoply have to dig deep to figure out what is happening and then how to resolve the situation. The novel dives and swoops through twists and turns, keeping the reader on the edge of their seats and flipping pages. It's very hard to set down. 

This is one part thriller, one part detective novel, and a third-part science fiction story. Reynolds does all three very well as he often investigates the consequences of the technology he uses while being very careful to create plausible limitations to that technology. There is a smorgasbord of wild and insane technology in these books, all operating together to create the 'verse where these characters live. The result is a very "lived in" feel to the characters' world which is reminiscent of Firefly and Serenity as opposed to Star Wars or Star Trek. 

This is a two-book series, Aurora Rising and Elysium Fire which runs alongside the rest of the Revelation Space novels. It's interesting because Reynolds loves a cast of thousands in his books and you can't help but notice when the characters reference each other. Oddly, there is no requirement to read those other books. But you should. 

The Revelation Space series verges on diamond-hard science fiction, where faster than light travel does not exist. I like it, but sometimes the whole thing can jump to body horror or technophobia as some of the threats enter the realm of "what would happen if you stuck an atom bomb in your eye" or "stepped into a running jet engine". Actually, both happen more than once... Crazy. 

You can search for it on Abebooks. 

Aurora Rising (The Prefect) by Alastair Reynolds on AbeBooks.

Five Point Friday - January 21, 2022

You know what? Mondays suck. Five Point Friday is better. 

Back in the day, I used to do a series of posts called "Just 5 Things" or "J5T". It didn't take off, not even with me.  

This time, I have an idea that might be workable. Every Friday, I'll post about 5 things. The first 3 will be D&D or OSR related, the fourth sci-fi or horror, and the last will be completely random, having little to do with anything gaming. 

Number 1: Dyson Logos, if you don't know it, is a mapper and artist. In my mind, he is like the cartographer version of Wil Wheaton. You know him, you like him, you do not follow his blog. Do yourself a favor and follow his blog. It's great. 

Number 2: #10MonsterSetting from 3 Toadstool Publishing. 3 Toadstool Publishing is a great blog but this one post really struck a chord with me. Shane Ward wanted a setting populated with the lesser-used critters in the Monster Manual. Chris Hall on MeWe came up with a list of 10 monster types that a new world required and the whole thing took off. It is ingenious. 

The first link is to the blog, the second two are to MeWe. 

Number 3: Screaming Skulls on The Red Dice Diaries. The hosts of The Red Dice Diaries, John and Hanna talk about the phenomena of Screaming Skulls and how you can work one into your campaign. The link above leads to a couple of handy tables to create a background for your campaign's screaming skull. Additionally, they found a 1950's film with a screaming skull to review.

Great stuff. I love the dynamic that 2 hosts create, a back and forth that is super easy to listen to while bringing different perspectives together. 

Number 4: I have Sci-fi on the brain this month, which is why I am using this format to push myself away from it and back to fantasy. My Sci-fi point of the week is Star Frontiers is 40 years old. WTF. It's a great little game that rolls together the OSR vibe with some attributes of boardgames and exploration. Check out my review of it here. 

Number 5: And finally, something about nothing OSR but maybe connectable to Sci-fi. One of my favorite podcast is Astronomy Cast, hosted by Dr. Pamela L. Gay and Fraser Cain. It started back in 2006 with the Episode "Pluto's Planetary Identity Problem". 

Recently, they are running a series about the solar system, hopping from Gas Giants and the minor bodies. 

Chicken Cashew

I need to start eating better. It would help if I knew how to cook. To that end, I purchased a couple of cookbooks. 

My wife and I purchased this many years ago on our honeymoon in Disney World. That was a long time ago and to be honest, we never used it. It sat on our shelf for years, forgotten. It wasn't until the fire in our home that I remember it. 

I purchased a new one off of Amazon and made a pact with my wife to use it once a week. Despite the cover, it is not a kid's book. I swear. This is a great cookbook. It was probably published in 1989 or so. They have listings for "Walt Disney World Shopping Village" restaurants, but no listings for MGM Studios. 

This week I made two different recipes. I'll start with the one that got 5 stars - Chicken Cashew. 

This cookbook is broken down by typical food types but also breaks them down by restaurant and theme park. Chicken Cashew was offered at the Polynesian Village Resort. It's delicate ginger and cashew-flavored chicken breast. 

This is the prettiest picture of 
raw chicken I have ever taken.

The ingredients are simple: Chicken breasts, white wine, butter, ginger, chicken broth, bouillon cubes, cashews, cornstarch, and water. With a dash of pepper and salt.  

The chicken is pan-fried in butter until golden brown. In a different pan, brown the cashews. When nice and golden brown, put both aside. 

Take the bouillon, broth (or chicken stock), wine, and ginger and simmer for 15 minutes. Slowly add water and cornstarch to thicken. 

When everything is done, plate it up.

Now, the cookbook offers no details as to what this chicken is served with, so I had to improvise with veggies and starches. Snow peas would have been amazing as would fresh green beans. I didn't have those so I made broccoli. For a starch, I made Carolina rice. 

I could see this working with noodles of some kind, but not potatoes. 

Anyway, here is what it looks like: 

You'll notice that my plate has an extra ingredient, cauliflower. This is because I am diabetic. I can't handle a lot of rice. The little cup holds about 1.5 to 2 oz. of rice. 

Now, I have teenage children, three of them. I paired this with about 4 cooked cups of rice and a pound of broccoli. Since the recipe states "serves 6", I have enough for a full lunch and enough rice and veggies for a second lunch or a few snacks. 

The family's response to this one was 5 of 5 stars, "definitely make this again". That was a real confidence builder. 

I might as well mention the wine I used. I picked a nice California wine, Dark Horse Sauvignon Blanc. It's not the best wine, but it serves for cooking and is easily obtainable. It is dry with some fruity notes. I've always wanted to say that about a wine. Anyway, it would be fine before dinner or with a rice or pasta dish. Being a dry white, it has a surprisingly refreshing ending. 

Circling back to the cookbook itself, this 33-year-old book is still fairly available at a good price. Apparently, there are a couple of editions, ranging from 1986 to 1990. All of them are basically the same. Click this link for Cooking with Mickey Around Our World at Abebooks.com. 

Just so you are aware, this cookbook dates back to a time when Disney Cast Members would give visitors recipes on request. Typically, they were handwritten on the spot. A few were popular enough to typewritten (on a typewriter) and photocopied. As a result, there are some typos and editing errors in this cookbook. I find it more charming than confusing. 

Book Review - Sanctuary by Lynn Abbey

Title: Sanctuary
Author: Lynn Abbey
Year: 2003
Pages: 480 pages
Print Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Audible Rating: N/A 

Ah, the little disappointments of eBooks and companies reselling products. I had purchased this book with the expectation that it was an Omnibus Edition of The Thieves World collection sold in the 80s. It is not and I was massively confused as I expected to settle in with a tried and true collection of short stores set in the city of Sanctuary. 

Adding to my confusion, this novel is marketed as having three books: Return To The City That Would Not Die!, Return To Thieves' World! and Return To Sanctuary!. All with exclamation points. Structurally, the novel is a single book and it's not really clear if this was ever serialized or three different books. G-- damn Marketroids screwing a good thing up. 

This book, which shares the title of the 1982 Omnibus edition is a newer novel by Lynn Abbey. 

In this story, we follow the adventures of Molin Torchholder as he literally passes the torch to a new generation of characters. This treatment was excellently handled as the new generation of characters are not simply derivative of old characters. They are couched in the term of the old Thieves World characters without actually being those people in a renewed form. They are markedly different even if they aspire to be as famous as the prior generation of anti-heroes. 

You would think that Molin would be a bad character to lead the next generation of scum in the city of Sanctuary. And to an extent that would be correct. However, as a survivor and an archpriest to the deposed and hidden god, Vashanka it made a lot of sense. He survives by pigheaded stubbornness, who else could live this long? 

The book has many callbacks to the original series, answering many questions while leaving some unanswered. While I was supremely disappointed that this was not the omnibus edition I was looking for, I found it an excellent read. I believe that this novel could be an excellent launching point if one as never read a Thieves World book before, as the callbacks and setting both come across as epic worldbuilding, invoking age and mystery for the reader.  

If you prefer a physical copies, check out Sanctuary by Lynn Abbey on Abebooks. This link will take you to a search page with different offerings at prices you can afford. 

I will be searching for those original omnibus editions, so stay tuned for more from Sanctuary and Thieves World. 

Adventure Review - 'No Tears Over Spilled Coffee!'

I have to be honest, I don't play e5 much. People cry over it. There should be no crying in D&D. I wouldn't have noticed this adventure except for the hue and cry people put up over it. 

The free adventure is called 'No Tears Over Spilled Coffee!' and is available at D&D Beyond. 

Allow me to throw up the standard stat block before I get into the review. 

Title: No Tears Over Spilled Coffee

Author: Michael Galvis

Year: 2022

Pages: 6 pages
Rating: 2 of 5 stars

The hue and cry over this adventure revolve around the premise of a band of characters working in the Firejolt Cafe, a coffee shop. Let me tell you, every person who offered this criticism is wrong. Flat wrong. 

There is a long history of landing adventures in the wrong role for the rule of funny. Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures come to mind rather easily. If Asprin can have Skeve walking into an Expy McDonalds in search of a trollop and finding trolls waiting tables, then so can you. 

I have to put an ad in here to honor the late author Robert Asprin. His characters, much like the characters in Coming to America, know their version of Mcdonald's is treading dangerously close to some sort of infringement. It is the rule of funny. 

The setting is not where this adventure falls apart. 

The Crew

The character's mission starts with a call from Ellina, the owner of the Firejolt Café. She has lost all of her staff and the party of new hires is her last chance to stay open. Unfortunately for all, Ellina is starting to get sick, so this first day will include some training, then Ellina will absent herself from the rest of the adventure. 

Literally. Like her employees, she never comes back for the rest of the adventure. 

There are a couple of problems with this scenario, beyond being snatched from the headlines, possibly right from your player's typical workday. 

Some of the problems could be reworked to be funny as opposed to problems. For example, it seems the author thinks there are cell phones in this world. "Called..." Yeah, if you accept some sort of anachronistic coffee shop, then you get cell phones. 

But imagine the contrary. Metron the Mercilous is lost, at sea between campaigns. He hires a band of criers to advertise his willingness to cut on people and burn villages.  In response, a crier approaches him with an excellent, turn-key opportunity with Ellian. Metron orders his henchmen to assemble as he reaches out to his assassin and thieving friends, plus a cleric of dubious intentions to seal the deal. He and his warband march off to the Firejolt Café to claim the prize appointments, prepared for the obvious campaign of bloodletting. 

To his surprise, he finds a gang of union members around the Café trying to get him to join. They promise Metron and his boys a minimum of 15 coppers an hour. Metron reaches for his battle-ax as Ellian quickly runs out to separate the gangs before anyone is separated from their heads. 

Yes, the whole premise could be seriously funny. 

Anyway, back to the actual adventure. 

Ellian (and the DM) walk the players through the game mechanics for play. Some characters can gain an advantage by being observant and utilizing the offered materials in the Café. Eventually, the party breaks common tasks down and gets to work. 

The day progresses without offering the players and their characters any option using strategy or tactics or any bit of creativity to succeed. 

Yawn. 

The Challenge

Finally! A challenge presents itself. The party has to work together to deal with a particularly difficult task. Ok. This is fine. 

The party has to come up with a perfect drink for a difficult customer. This is where the whole thing unravels. 

Up to this point, the characters have had an easy time of it. In order to complete this challenge, they must pass 5 successive DC 11 skill rolls. And here in lies the problem. 

Do you know the chances of rolling an 11 or higher on a 1d20? It's 50-50. A coin toss. Players generally know how to measure their chances and this one will ring out as carney style game. 50-50 sounds pretty great. That's easy. 

But 5 in a row... ah... That works out to be a 3% chance. That's exactly like flipping a fair coin 5 times in a row and getting tails each time. 

Worse than 3%

But it's worse than the numbers hint at. As each player attempts to roll an 11 or higher, there will be a crystal clear point where someone's failure will screw the party. 

Essentially, as the party rolls, someone has a 50-50 chance of blowing it and that failure will land on a single player and their poor die rolls. Even if the characters have a skill that pushes up their chances to say 12 in twenty, the chances rise to a mere 7%. The check would have to push to 18 in 20 to give a better than 50% chance of success. 

It is one thing where a party snatches victory from the jaws of defeat by careful application of skills and talents. It's something different when you have some to roll less than an 18 which sounds like a challenge until you flip it around and ask them to roll over a 2 on a twenty-sided die. 

Presentation

As you can see, under 18 and over 2 sounds like two different things because of the presentation. This adventure's saving grace is the slick presentation where it sounds like the party can do something together. But the math shows otherwise. 

While the premise could be interesting, the given purpose and tasks offer little or no reward to the players and are actually crocked to ensure the party fails. 

I gave this adventure one star for being free and a second for being creative. It is an excellent learning experience for DM to learn how not to create an adventure.