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cOSRatic Dialogue
Posted on September 12, 2017 by Magician
Magician: Greetings, wise one. I have long since observed you, and read some of your writing. Yet I confess, the essence of your teachings eludes me.
cOSRates: My lessons are not some great mystery, but the original and most natural way to play. It does, however, require clearing your head of all the clutter of modernity, as it is forged out of false assumptions. Only once your mind is unpolluted can you see the simplicity and elegance of the old ways.
Magician: Simplicity is the right word. That's the part that's always been a stumbling block for me. I like rules. They can guide and shape the experience. Yet you preach ascetism when it comes to game mechanics. Your game systems are so simple they are interchangeable.
cOSRates: I have nothing against rules, either. But they should serve a puprose, to fairly arbitrate situations that frequently come up. Why would you want to learn rules you may never use? Why would you trust a distant game designer to judge a unique situation at your table better than your own GM can?
Magician: That's the issue, isn't it. Trust. I trust a distant game designer to know how their game works, and to foresee complications I may not consider when they create the rules, even rules that won't see frequent use. I don't know if I trust myself, much less a GM I may have only just met, to do the same. You mentioned fairness. That's what I want, too.
cOSRates: Without trust, how can you play? If you can't rely on your GM to be impartial and fair, no amount of rules will save you. Why look to guidance in rules, when advice on running a game is so easy to find in plain text? Why put shackles on the GM and on the game itself on the off chance they will fail you? You spoke of knock-on effects of rulings. Those only really are an issue in complex games. That is some of the clutter I mentioned. Simplify. Free yourself. And if a ruling does become a problem, it's still not a rule. Change it, change the situation, adapt. You are the GM, that's how the game works. Nothing is written in stone, it's not even written on paper.
Magician: It does seem like the old school way of playing fosters an antagonistic relationship between players and GM, though. There certainly are plenty of horror stories of power-tripping GMs, or players who pulled a fast one on the GM. The latter, predictably, are hailed as heroic, further reinforcing the antagonism. And that's before we get to the perhaps more common situations where neither side is actively trying to screw the other, but have different ideas on how things should work, or what they find fun. With rules to guide them, it'd be easier to find common ground. Still, I take your point that trust is foundational.
cOSRates: You mention "fun". I suspect we'd have different definitions. In my eyes, overcoming adversity is fun. Outsmarting the enemy is fun. Beating, truly beating the dungeon is fun. For the victory to be meaningful, there has to be a real chance of defeat. If you go into my game expecting to be a hero, you may well be disappointed. Which isn't to say there aren't power-tripping GMs or antagonistic players, of course there are. But we've had a long time to figure out and perfect the playstyle. If they deviate from it, that's on them.
Magician: But why would you want to play a character that doesn't end up the hero of the story? Our hobby immitates the stories we love, lets us live them. It's not much of the story if the protagonists die at the hands of random orcs. It's not satisfying.
cOSRates: You say death at the hands of random orcs is not satisfying, I say guaranteed victory over the random orcs is not satisfying. Our hobby is inspired by stories, yes, but it doesn't immitate them. Unlike stories, roleplaying games are interactive. It may not be much of a story if characters die stupidly, but it surely is a game. And that's another thing. A bad roll or two can kill a character, that's true, but the character had to do something to get into this position. It was the player's decision that got them killed, not the roll.
Magician: I'm afraid you've misunderstood me. Yes, I don't think heroes should die to random orcs. But that doesn't mean their victory should be guaranteed, either. How they win, what they have to give up, what consequences this victory causes, that's what's interesting to me in a random fight. Should the characters lose the fight, I'd be more interested in seeing them captured, to find out how they proceed from there. And to your latter point, granted, characters had to make a decision or three to get to the point of rolling dice – but why make them dread rolling dice in the first place? The game is about fighting monsters in dungeons, is it not? Then why make the actual fighting undesireable?
cOSRates: And now it's you who misunderstands. The game most certainly is not about "fighting monsters". It is about overcoming the dungeon by whatever means necessary. The players know combat is deadly. They know a trap can kill their character at any moment. It is a test of their skill, not of the numbers on their character sheet. If they win through brute force – great. If they die – too bad, better luck next time, hope you learned your lesson.
Magician: Fine. Perhaps I turly am too accustomed to the modern interpretations of D&D, I cut my teeth on the 3rd edition, after all, and I know it's not to your liking. To be honest, it's no longer to my liking, either, though probably for different reasons. Anyway, let us go back a bit. You say there is no expectation of PCs being heroes in your game. That you're not trying to tell a story at all, but play an interactive game, governed by players as opposed to storytelling rules. You talk of outwitting the enemies, of picking and choosing your battles. I suspect you may be fooling yourself. It is a story, just not necessarily a story of heroes saving the world a dungeon at a time. It's a story of foolhardy people in dangerous circumstances. They may become the world-saving heroes, but they will probably die in a gelatinous cube long before that. The narrative conventions are different, but they are still obeyed. And it's a fine story to tell, no better or worse than the story of heroes actually saving the world, or any other. Which is why proclaiming it to be the best and only true way of roleplaying is mystifying to me.
cOSRates: Some of my disciples do get overzealous, it's true. That's on them. Though, of course, we receive just as much of inane criticism as we dish out. Regardless. If you wish to call it a story, if that helps you wrap your mind around the concept, go ahead. It's not the point of the game, not how I see it. Still, if it's story you're after, riddle me this. You talk of heroes, but what makes them heroes? How can they be heroes if their victory is preordained? You play to find out if their victory will be Pyrrhic, to see what they would do to reach their goal. "Roll 2d6, on 10+ you are awesome, on 7-9 a puppy dies but you're still awesome, on 6- you get kicked around, then roll again." I play to see if they can manage to be heroes, to be victorious. Which game is more heroic?
Magician: I think I get it now. You see the game as a collection of problems to overcome. That's what dungeons are. Players have to earn their victories, earn their meaning, or they become yet another object lesson decorating the dungeon walls. And I'll admit I see the allure. At the same time, I now realise "heroism" was the wrong angle for this discussion. "Interesting" would have been better. Many of the modern games, like the Apocalypse World you mock, have identified what they find interesting, and actively create such circumstances. For instance, ammunition is only interesting if it runs out, so there's no need to track it, you can instead have a rule to say when it runs out. You talk of earning victories. But you have to earn interesting events in your games, too.
cOSRates: Damn right, you have to earn them. I won't even address the ridiculousness of having a special rule for ammunition running out. I create volatile circumstances and put PCs right in the middle. Interesting things can't help but occur, that's how the game is set up. You just… cheat. Cheat and proclaim an interesting thing has happened. It's hollow.
Magician: And that's where we differ. I want different stories, not just the one you tell. I want interesting events, and I'm happy to "cheat" to get them.
Especially Nasty – Illiphant
Posted on August 22, 2017 October 10, 2017 by Magician
Illithids are plotting, secretive, inscrutable, psychically potent yet physically frail creatures. They are also "product identity" of D&D, so no official version exists in 13th Age. Fortunately, an illiphant is none of these things. It owes its existence to a mural made by Alexis Diaz, though the artist can hardly be blamed for the name, or the ensuing silliness.
Illiphant
Whether an illithid experiment or the result of escaped illithid tadpoles latching on to a poor creature, this monstrosity is highly territorial, exceptionally intelligent, and holds a grudge. If bodies of massive creatures with enormous holes in their skulls littered throughout the area were not enough to deter you, you better hope you merely get trampled to death. Illiphants do so like the taste of terror mixed with despair.
Level 7 Huge wrecker [ABERRANT]
Initiative +9
Trample +11 vs PD, 42 damage.
Natural even attack roll: the target may choose to pop free. If it does, the illiphant moves to a nearby enemy it hasn't attacked this turn yet and repeats the attack. If the target chooses not to pop free, the illiphant repeats the attack against it instead.
Natural odd roll: the illiphant makes a tentacle grab attack against the same target as a free action.
Tentacle grab +11 vs PD, the target is grabbed. An illiphant can have up to four creatures grabbed. This is the ability it usually uses for oppoprtunity attacks.
Squeeze the brains out +13 vs PD (all creatures grabbed by the illiphant), 84 damage.
Nastier Specials:
Cacophanous trumpetting. The illiphant has fear aura (fear threshold 36hp). In addition, its tentacle grab attack can target either MD or PD, whichever is lower.
An illiphant is never forgotten. The creature that strikes the killing blow against an illiphant never truly escapes the encounter. Their wounds may heal, but fear lingers. The (hopefully) irrational fear of being followed by an illiphant bent on revenge. Of its massive bulk hiding in the shadows. Observing. Biding its time. Bringing about their inevitable downfall. A hulking gray eminence out to get them.
Clearly, the only way to rid yourself of this fear is to confront it. Hunt down and kill the illiphant hunting you. Or at least any illiphant you can find. Just be sure it's you who lands the killing blow again, or the paranoia will spread.
PD 21 HP 324
Building up an Adventure
Posted on August 14, 2017 August 14, 2017 by Magician
Last week, two of the players in our group couldn't make it, so the regular game was cancelled. I seized upon the opportunity to try out something different, namely Shadow of the Demon Lord. It wasn't enough to write a First Impressions post, however the experience of rewriting the adventure was perhaps noteworthy enough. Because the starting adventure I picked, A Year Without Rain, was just a tad disappointing.
Note, this isn't really a review of the adventure, nor is it a rewrite you can easily use to run it yourself. Instead, I hope you'll find the process itself useful. And if it wasn't apparent, there will be detailed spoilers of the adventure.
The premise held promise: a village affected by a lenghty drought, then stricken by people suddenly drying up, their corpses all but turning to dust. Investigation leads the party into the well, where a demon to blame for it all resides. Cool. The lone review on DTRPG warns of the adventure's deadliness, and it isn't exagerrating.
However, the main issue I immediately had with it is it's just a dungeoncrawl. And not a very engaging one, either. Once the PCs dive into the well, it's just a series of rooms with monsters popping up to attack them. The demon herself simply wanders the halls, appearing at any moment. Kill it and you win, the end. This isn't to say there aren't any interesting elements scattered there. The Goblet of Tears, a magic item that produces 10 gallons of salt water each day, and has a 1-in-20 chance of not stopping for a year is quite cool. As a side note, the party immediately triggered this hidden drawback, and the survivors intend to build themselves a salt-selling business.
The initial investigative stage is straightforward but serviceable. One moment that's not very well thought-out: the Laughter in the Well, the demon to blame for all the deaths and the drought, has apparently been killing people for a year now. It's also seemingly been dragging their dessicated corpses into its lair as it's strewn with dust left from their bodies. How come it's only been noticed a week ago for the first time? There is even a dedicated well-watcher in the village! The demon can scry on the surrounding area and teleport there, picking off lone travellers, and I guess teleporting back with their bodies. A week ago its modus operandi changes. Now it floats out of the well, asks lone passers-by for a kiss, and just lets them walk off and die.
Perhaps it has gradually recovered its strengths, growing bolder. The Shadow of the Demon Lord looming ever closer probably had an effect, too. This isn't something PCs are likely to discover, but it helps to give the adventure urgency. As written, if the PCs do nothing the demon eats a villager each night until eventually the inquisition is called in and presumably deals with the threat. Not all that exciting. Instead, let's say the demon goes out of its way to kill any messengers sent to alert the authorities, after which the villagers figure they should start sacrificing people to it, doing it with proper respect. Malery, one of the few NPCs players are likely to have a positive interaction with, makes for a good first victim. Outsider PCs work, too.
Overall plot sorted, lets move on to mechanics. Now, I'm new to SotDL. However, it seems like actual fighting is not it's goal or source of fun. It's exciting, but it's not something you're meant to be doing for the majority of the session, unlike, say, in D&D 4e. The rulebook even warns new players to avoid conflict, calling it "last resort." At the same time, the strength of the system seems to lie in the flexibility of its boons and banes, allowing for quick adjucation of novel approaches. A somewhat OSR attitude.
With that in mind, what opportunities for avoiding combat and novel approaches does the adventure offer? There's a whole bunch of monsters in that dungeon. The tiny demon hiding in the sand pool and the golem masquarading as a magic circle are seemingly there to punish PCs for poking around too much – a strange lesson to teach as there aren't any warning signs of their presence. In contrast to that, the large spider in a coffin, while seemingly doing the same, actually rewards confronting it – if not dealt with, it'll pop up later when PCs are most vulnerable.
Inconsistent lessons aside, many of these monsters also don't make sense. What is the spider eating in this dry-as-a-bone dungeon, how did it get there, why hasn't it been destroyed by the traps or demons? Whose coffins are those? Why are animated corpses in the other room animated and not drained until they're sand like everything else here? What's with the magic circle/golem room: why are doors blown off its hinges, why is the golem even there? "Some great explosion had
occurred here long ago." Great. Very interesting.
Too much of the adventure feels like it's just filling up rooms with monsters, filling up the session with combat. Time to cut. I've kept the sand pool demon, to act as an intro to combat rules, and it dropped one of the PCs in two rounds. Deadly, indeed. The PCs had brought multiple waterskins into the dungeon, reasoning it'd come in handy against something that drains people dry, and I let them splash it on the demon (Agility vs Agility, 1d6 damage).
While I didn't quite mean to, I literally forgot the spider room even being there. No big loss. The magic circle is just a magic circle. The ghoul musician is amusing enough, though this gag encounter being as tough as the actual demon is a bit ridiculous. Still, if the PCs fail to appease it, they can run back through the trap tunnel, softening it up. Which means the trap tunnel needs some more definition. Let's go with standard raised bricks that trigger the blades popping up.
Secret doors to the "treasure room" also need an actual description. An idential carving of the demon in its beautiful guise will do, offering an obvious hint that something's there. And seeing how it's so focused on kissing people to death, lets say the doors are opened by touching the carving's lips.
What to do with the demon itself? Beating it to death is hardly satisfying. Not to mention it's very likely to one-shot a PC each round, and I only have 3. No, we need a "puzzle" element, a way to weaken it to a more manageable state. The scrying orb is a natural fit to give a hint. As it's written, it gives non-essential and fairly bland backstory. Instead, lets say it shows how the demon was first defeated. It's "portfolio" is lust and drought, a strange combination. Perhaps even its "priests" had a love/hate relationship with it. Kiss, draining all liquid, death, betrayal, sacrifice. Salt. Got it.
The vision shows five priests do a simple ritual over the Goblet of Tears, drinking the cursed salt water from it, then kissing the demon one after another. As they die, so does the demon. Oh, and look at that, there are five animated corpses for some reason entombed with the demon, how convenient. So there we have it. Get the vision, the goblet, the unholy symbol from the priests, do the ritual, fool the demon into drinking one of you. Don't want to sacrifice yourself? Perhaps there's another way. The first victim of the demon was a real jerk named Braidon. Let's not kill him, skipping straight to the second victim and making up more if we have to. Want to save yourself? Sacrifice Braidon instead. Get a point of corruption, welcome to dark fantasy.
Once the demon drinks the cursed salt water from someone, it starts falling apart, clump by clump turning to dust itself. Here's where boons and banes come in handy: for each "sip" it takes, it gains one bane to everything, and those attacking it gain one boon. You still have to fight it, but at least now the PCs stand a chance.
And finally, how do they meet it? Lets say it reconstitutes itself out of dust in the dungeon each night, assembling its body on the burial slab. As PCs spend time in the tomb, they notice dust streaming towards that room of its own accord. Functionally like a vampire waking up at night, but with a different flavor of growing tension.
With all these changes, why even use a pre-written adventure? It offered a starting point. Especially for a system you're not familiar with, seeing how you're "meant" to run it is useful. And it wasn't all bad: the antagonist, the goblet of tears, the human dust-strewn dungeon, those are all evocative elements. It offered a foundation, upon which I could build a satisfying game. It would have been nice not to have to do that, to just run it as is, but hopefully with this post as an example, you'll be able to do something similar yourself.
Especially Nasty – Raggamummy
Posted on August 1, 2017 October 10, 2017 by Magician
It shambles towards you, more pitiful than menacing. The stench of rotting flesh is barely contained by its dirty bandages. It is not a very impressive mummy. As you notice the bandages sway in the non-existent wind, you realise, way too late, it is not a mummy at all.
Raggamummy
Without a creature to wrap around, the raggamummy is just a pile of animated bandages. Everything changes when it finds a victim – the bandages snake over them, wrapping tighter and tighter.
Level 2 spoiler
C Entangle (one nearby non-mummified creature) +7 vs PD, 7 damage and the target is hampered and mummified.
Mummification. The mummified creature suffers 5 ongoing damage for as long as it remains mummified, and starts making last gasp saves, except it retains its full set of actions – see below. Success allows the mummified creature to throw the raggamummy off. On the fourth failed save, the raggamummy reaches inside the creature's head, pulling out its brain through its nose. Some of the bandages coil up inside the now empty head, and the raggamummy takes full control of the body. Treat it as permanently hampered pseudo-undead.
While the raggamummy has a creature mummified, it doesn't act on its turn. Instead, it controls the mummified creature's actions.
Natural even save: the mummified creature has control over its standard action this round.
Natural odd save: the mummified creature has control over its move action this round.
Only the regular last gasp saves can trigger these effects, saves granted by other creatures or abilities do not.
Close to the skin. While the raggamummy has a creature mummified, it takes only half damage from any source, with the mummified creature taking the other half. It takes full damage from fire instead (the mummified creature still takes half).
Nastier Specials
Death by a thousand papercuts. The more you struggle, the deeper the bandages cut. The mummified creature's ongoing damage increases by 5 each time it makes a last gasp save. It can voluntarily fail last gasp saves without making a roll.
PD 12 HP 30
The raggamummy starts the encounter as a "mummy", wrapped around a corpse – use zombie shuffler stats (level 1 mook, 13A p251). Whenever a creature hits this "mummy" with a melee attack, the raggamummy makes an entangle attack against it. If successful, it leaves the body which drops dead.
First Impressions – Cthulhu Confidential
Posted on July 25, 2017 August 29, 2017 by Magician
Cthulhu Confidential is an elaboration of a version of GUMSHOE, an investigative RPG by Pelgrane Press. Let's untangle this a bit. GUMSHOE is the engine upon which multiple games are built. It's core idea is as follows: it's not fun, and therefore shouldn't be possible, for investigators to fail to solve a mystery because they failed a roll to find the crucial clue. To that end, character abilities are divided into investigative and general ones. Characters are masters of ther investigative fields, and automatically succeed whenever their skills are applicable. In the core GUMSHOE system, there's a resource/spotlight management element involved, but it is entirely absent in Cthulhu Confidential for reasons which shall become apparent momentarily.
Trail of Cthulhu is one of the games based on GUMSHOE, and portrays, unsurprisingly, investigators of Lovecraftian mysteries. Finally, Cthulhu Confidential is an adaptation of Trail of Cthulhu to a new variant of GUMSHOE, GUMSHOE one-2-one. One GM, one player, all the horrifying mysteries between them.
It is a very light system. The book itself consists of 70 pages of rules, of which 8 are dedicated to a primer on Cthulhu Mythos, followed by 220 pages dedicated to 3 scenarios. I've run the first scenario so far, and, as an experiment, have recorded it for my friend and player's youtube channel. If you so wish, you can follow Dex Raymond, a hardboiled detective, as he tries to solve the mystery of Fathomless Sleep, or listen to our post-game discussion.
How it Runs
The scenario is excellent. Not once did the player get stuck, not knowing what to do next – there was always a clue to follow up on, something else to investigate, all the way to the resolution. Оn the flip side, the scenario made my job as a GM easy as it offered a scene for every thing my player had tried, and an answer for most questions he's asked. And a good thing, too – this game isn't meant to be improvised.
The three scenarios in the book are set in three different cities and time periods, following three different detectives, with plenty of setting details and potential story hooks provided for each. Should you decide to continue the adventures of a detective you liked, you'll find everything you need there.
I found it very interesting (and this is a very slight spoiler) how little supernatural elements there were, at least in Fathomless Sleep. Majority of the time is spent on Dex simply talking to various unsavory characters. When the supernatural does show up, it is all the more efficient.
The book warns of the "intensity" of this game: the player has no one to hide behind, no one to take the spotlight or responsibility from them. They're it. To mitigate this intensity, the PC can turn to their sources, friendly NPCs offering expertiese in the investigative skill fields not covered by the PC. There is advise on using them to break up the tension a bit, though I'm not sure how practical that is: the player is the one initiating contact with sources, typically when there is something they need help with, and not when pacing would suggest they need a break.
Intensity works both ways. Just as the player is constantly in the spotlight, so is the GM. You don't get a chance to look up the upcoming scene or plot what comes next while the players argue with one another. And in this game every detail matters, you really don't want to mess up what clues you give out. As we were recording the game in 30 minute episodes, we had natural breaks which were very convenient. I'd suggest calling for an occasional pause as you play, even if you're used to running uninterrupted sessions in other games.
Scenarios are well and good, but what about the mechanics? In addition to the investigative abilities at which the character simply succeeds, they get a bunch of general abilities, rated at one or two dice. These cover the "action" side of the game: Fighting, Sense Trouble, Shadowing, Stability, etc. Most of the time, these are used in Challenges, which provide branching outcomes to a scene. On the face of it, it's a standard Success/Success with Complications/Failure mechanic, but there are some fascinating subtleties.
If you haven't rolled high enough, you can take on a Problem in order to get an extra die. Reaching the "success" value usually grants you an Edge in addition to accomplishing whatever it is you were doing, while failure often saddles you with another Problem. These Edges and Problems are represented by cards detailing how they work. Cards impose penalties or offer benefits on rolls, restrict your options in some way, or merely remind of their existence in the narrative.
While there are generic Problems and Edges in the appendix of the book, scenarios provide their own cards specific to the situations within. This underscores the need for GM preparation: ideally, you'll have your own tiny decks written up, covering the likely eventualities.
As the GM decides what the outcomes of a Challenge can be, it doesn't get a chance to derail the game. The PC can't die due to an unlucky roll, but neither can they beat up an entire mob.
Taken together, the cards and the way the Challenges are framed essentially replace all the other mechanics the game might have had. There's no damage or sanity system – if you get wounded, you'll likely have a Problem card that tells you what it means. Why was injury on the table in the first place? Because the Challenge was set up that way. There are no antagonist stats of any kind. It works, and the game flows quite smoothly, but there isn't even a shade of "simulation" as the result, and it does feel a bit lazy, especially once you find out how the target numbers are assigned – more on that in a moment.
First, some more thoughts on the nuances of this mechanic. Unlike Fate, where you get "karmic credit" by accepting problems that you later spend on overcoming other problems, here the Problem you get is a direct consequence of your actions as you push yourself further in order to succeed, e.g. a pulled back as you dodge a blow. It's Edges that often act as somewhat specialized fate points, as many of them can be spent for an extra die on a particular kind of a Challenge. But Edges are earned by rolling high, not by choosing to make your life harder.
The player isn't rewarded for screwing themselves over in an entertaining fashion, neither are they expected to do so. Instead, they accept Problems as a means to an end, to succeed and hopefully gain Edges. And as Challenges resolve a scene's worth of conflict, you're going to need all the Edges you can save up for that last roll or two which decide how it all turns out.
Overall, while it is a narrative system with seeming similarities to Fate, the underlying dynamics are quite different.
As there is only one character, the adventure is custom made for them. Their abilities are known, and so all the Challenge difficulties are set with them in mind. The table for choosing these difficulties is based on how the different outcomes will affect the plot, and comes with two columns, for one or two dice the PC has in the general ability used. So what does having two dice even do for you?
Mainly, it safeguards you from the randomness of dice. Two dice are a tiny bit less likely to screw you over than one, simple as that. Preciously few rolls are made each session, and they are prone to feedback loops: roll poorly once, and you're saddled with Problems making it harder to roll well next time. Roll well, though, and you have an Edge which may help you get more Edges in the future. Thus even though having 2 dice in a skill doesn't actually make you better at it, it makes you more reliable at it, and given the feedback loops that is extremely important.
Running Cthulhu Confidential is like having a conversation. The rules get out of the way to let the player be engulfed by the story. There's no bookkeeping, nothing to reference, just the very brief character sheet and the cards you gain. There's no one to hide behind, either. It is a perfect set up for a horror game. Just you and the mystery.
Terrain Effects in 13th Age
Posted on July 17, 2017 by Magician
13th Age doesn't much care for terrain or environmental effects. There's the Tracker and Swashbucker talents, and a bit on using traps in the core book. The GM Resource book has a solid chapter on using terrain and overcoming the stand-and-hit-each-other problem. Good advice, but no mechanics. So, here are some mechanics. This post is a toolbox more than anything, providing you with a starting point to create the terrain effects that match your situation.
The idea is directly inspired by D&D 5e's lair actions. But whereas the lair actions are tied to boss monsters controlling their environment, terrain effects are tied to Icons, can appear anywhere, and can be taken over (or even created!) by PCs.
Adding Terrain Effects to Combat
The simplest way to add a terrain effect is to have it be there from the start. A terrain effect is roughly equivalent to a single-strength creature of its level. If the opposition owns it (see below), simply include that in your battle building calculations. If it is neutral, but starts out under the opposition's control, it's still worth something. Neutral active terrain effects make life harder for everyone and probably don't affect the calculations.
There is, however, another option. Players can use one of their 6's or 5's on the icon relationship dice to create or conveniently discover a terrain effect. 13th Age is a high magic game, with Icons affecting the world itself with their will. That said, it's entirely up to your GM (and the group) how often this would happen. The effect, as well as the locaiton, should fit thematically – utilising your relationship with the Lich King at a graveyard to cause zombie arms to pop up from below the ground and grasp at your enemies is cool. Calling on the same zombies to grab your enemies in a royal palace is a bit odd.
A 6 on a relationship die gives you ownership of the terrain effect. It can also give you ownership over a neutral terrain effect already present on the battlefield. A 5 provides a neutral terrain effect.
What does owning a terrain effect mean? Whoever owns the terrain effect chooses who counts as its enemies, simple as that. Neutral terrain hates everyone equally.
Mechanics of Terrain Effects
Terrain effects use the numbers from the Skill Check DCs, Trap/Obstacle Attacks & Impromptu Damage by Environment table on the page 186 of the core book. Depending on how far along in a tier your party is, use the Normal or Hard line. Handwavy, I know, but the convenience of using a single table from the core book beats individual write-ups.
Whenever monsters are forced to do skill checks, they roll a save instead: easy save replaces a normal check, normal save replaces a hard check, and a hard save replaces the ridiculously hard check.
Each terrain effect listed below is abstract, but comes with a number of examples. Modify the effect based on its flavor – change the damage type, the condition it inflicts, the defense it targets, or the skill it requires.
This is another things 13th Age doesn't normally have. There's two approaches here: if the terrain has a clear boundary, like ice-covered river, that's the zone. Otherwise, if it originates from a single point, whether that point actually exists (unholy idol) or doesn't (cloud of gas), the zone of effect is everything nearby this point.
Whenever a creature is on the edge of a terrain effect zone, a PC engaged with it can use a quick action to make whatever skill check they can get away with, to conclusively move their target into or out of the zone. Likewise, if a PC is on the edge of a terrain effect zone, a creature engaged with them can use a quick action to cause the PC to make a skill check or end up in or out of the zone.
Active terrain
Active terrain is almost a creature in its own right. It acts on its own initiative – give it an initiative modifier as you see fit, much like you would with a custom monster. No need to overthink this, +0 is generally fine.
Painful terrain
Attacks PD of 1d3 random enemies within it, dealing damage.
Examples: lava eruptions (The Three, High Druid, Diabolist, Orc Lord), steam vents (Crusader, Dwarf King, Archmage, Emperor), statue of an angry god (Crusader, Diabolist, Priestess, Lich King), snake pit (High Druid, Prince of Shadows, The Three).
Mobile "terrain"
Moves in a predetermined fashion, attacking PD of everyone it encounters along its path, dealing damage.
Examples: rolling boulder (Orc Lord, Dwarf King), boulder perpetually rolling down a Penrose staircase (Archmage), swinging axe (Dwarf King, Crusader).
Grasping terrain
Attacks PD of 1d3 random enemies within it, those hit become stuck, save ends. If the target is already stuck, the terrain deals damage instead.
Examples: strangling vines (High Druid, Elf Queen), zombie hands (Lich King), sinkhole (Dwarf King).
Passive terrain
Passive terrain affects enemies entering, ending their turn, or trying to do something within it.
Polluted "terrain"
Whenever an enemy ends their turn within this terrain, it attacks their PD. Those hit take damage, or become weakened or confused until the end of their next turn, depending on the polutant.
Examples: aerial poison (The Three, Prince of Shadows, Lich King), room on fire (The Three, Diabolist, Orc Lord, Great Gold Wyrm), spore cloud (High Druid, Elf Queen).
Unstable terrain
Whenever an enemy tries to move within this terrain, it must make a Dex skill check or lose the action.
Examples: patch of ice (High Druid), waist-deep swamp (The Three), tar (Orc Lord).
Dangerous terrain
Enemies are vulnerable while within this terrain.
Examples: blood-soaked fields (Orc Lord, Crusader), sacrificial altar (Lich King, Diabolist).
Protecting terrain
Whenever a non-enemy starts their turn within this terrain, it can make a save against a condition affecting it.
Examples: sanctified ground (Priestess, Great Gold Wyrm), inspiring statue (Emperor, Elf Queen, Dwarf King).
This is obviously not an exhaustive list, and I'd love to see your suggestions on expanding it.
Especially Nasty – Rust Monster Eraser
Posted on June 29, 2017 by Magician
Rust monsters are not that dangerous, really. Annoying, potentially very expensive to deal with, and often leaving you terminally unprepared for whatever comes next, sure. But not dangerous by themselves. Some eat metal. Others magic. Not this one, though. This one eats your destiny. You'll survive the encounter, covered in the rusty flakes of your once-great future.
Fatum phages show up at the most unfortunate time. The closer a hero is to fulfilling their destiny, the brighter they shine in the multi-faceted eyes of these beasts. And if said hero's One Unique Thing has something to do with prophecy or fate, fatum phages would stop at nothing to get them.
Fatum Phage
Level 8 spoiler [ABERRATION]
Caustic bite +13 vs. MD (one creature with no unspent story-guide icon relationship rolls)—38 damage, and 10 ongoing acid damage
Natural 16+: the target makes a save or permanently loses one of its icon relationships.
Rusting antenna +13 vs. MD (one creature with an unspent story-guide icon relationship roll of 5 or 6)—22 damage, and the target makes a hard save or decrements one of its story-guide icon relationship dice from 6 to 5, or loses a 5 entirely.
Tasty Tasty Fate: A fatum phage can add the escalation die to its attacks whenever it targets a creature that added the escalation die to its attacks last turn.
Rust's targets: Icon relationships of creatures with 180 hp or more are not affected by the fatum phage's ability to weaken or destroy them (they still take damage).
Rusted Icons: Pull up the Couatl entry of the Bestiary. Each time a fatum phage affects a relationship roll result or the relationship itself with its rusting antenna or caustic bite attack, it gains a corresponding icon-centric ability as if it was an 8th-level couatl. The fatum phage can only have one such ability at a time, so a new ability overwrites the old one; but limits on ability use such as 1/battle are reset when a new ability is gained.
Recovering Icon Relationships
The Archmage probably knows a useful ritual. So may the Elf Queen. The Diabolist likely has a deal she can offer. The Prince of Shadows stole everything there was to steal, maybe he knows how to unsteal some things, too. Point is, many icons can help. But why would they waste their time on someone so clearly insignificant as you?
Musings on rules
Once, at the dawn of my roleplaying career, I had convinced a friend to try DMing, letting me be a player for once. It was, naturally, D&D. We had ourselves a decent enough adventure, and fought some robotic wolves at some point. An enjoyable experience. Later, I asked him what stats he used for the monsters. He said he used regular wolves, but wanted to make them tougher, so he didn't track their hit points. Instead, they died after a few rounds, when he felt like the fight had gone on long enough.
The fight was a lie. The fight was exactly the same. We still stabbed the wolves, were bit in return and prevailed in the end. What changed? While individual rolls were a waste of time, the decision to fight did matter: we could have, perhaps, found a way to sneak past them. The starting point (decision to fight) and the destination (wolves dead) stayed the same, it's the actual journey in the middle that turned out to have been meaningless. Except even that is not quite true. We still enjoyed rolling the dice, and imagining the hits and misses.
Don't get me wrong, that was a terrible thing to do, but mainly because it violated the rules of the game that we thought we understood. One can easily imagine a system where a fight (or any other scene) only goes on as long as it's interesting. In fact, that's a backup rule or suggestion in many games: wrap things up and move on if players start getting bored. And in systems without such rules, people have invented tools like Combat Out for D&D 4e, ways to end a combat once the victor is determined or a specific condition is met.
Generalizing, many if not most games have the so-called rule zero: ignore the rules if that makes your game better. And on the flip side of that is the illusionism approach: the belief that the GM cannot cheat, and should be free to lie about the dice rolls and other mechanical elements to make the game better. This may involve helping a recurring villain get away, saving the party from an unlucky TPK or engineering one.
Then why even have rules? Why do we bother with mechanics if they inevitably get in the way of the experience we wish to have? Some people quite happily play freeform, after all. Others avoid using any rules for the majority of their game time, e.g. playing a social intrigue D&D game. In no particular order, and not necessarily exhaustively, rules provide impartiality, surprise, structure, and fun.
The fun part is the easiest to explain: by most definitions, you can't have a game without rules. And we like games. We like to roll dice, to demonstrate our mastery of the rules and be rewarded for it. Then again, I already mentioned freeform games here, and I'm not particularly interested in declaring something Not A Roleplaying Game. A different kind of enjoyment can undoubtedly be had even without rules.
Rules allow players and GM alike to anticipate likely outcomes of their actions. They make it harder for a GM to play favorites with their players, and make it easier to be consistent. Rules also take on the blame. It wasn't the GM that killed you, it were the dice. Rules make sure the game is fair. This is where the desire for game balance comes from: it is a problem if the players perceive, whether correctly or not, the game itself to not be fair.
Then again, there are entire playstyles dedicated to the idea of GM knowing best, like the aforementioned illusionism. "Rulings, not rules." Indeed, some players reject the idea of rules governing some of their activities, such as social interactions or exploration.
By and large, the impartiality of rules is an illusion anyway, though a useful one. In all but the most restrictive games, the GM has leeway to interpret an event in a variety of ways, and to decide whether to apply mechanics at all. Fate is particularly noteworthy here: its rules govern narrative circumstances rather than the in-game situation. Meaning the GM (hopefully with cooperation of the players) chooses which rules to apply. Not to mention the ability to set up any kind of situation in the first place. It's not against the rules to throw a tarrasque against a 1st level party, just not advised. Declaring that Rocks Fall, Everyone Die is legit, too.
Related to impartiality is the capacity of a game to surprise us, to choose the outcome for us. More than that, true surprise comes from unexpected outcomes rules can provide. Not just path A or B, but an entirely unforeseen path C opened up by a (un)lucky critical hit. 13th Age's owlbear exemplifies this: most of the time it's just a monster to be fought, but it could rip your arm off, forcing the story in a new, bloody, direction. Then again, the GM can certainly surprise players without any rules, and players are notorious for doing the same to the GM.
So far, everything the rules do, we can achieve otherwise. The last element left is structure, and this is, I believe, the main benefit mechanics provide. Roleplaying games are an interactive medium. A group creates their own game every time they sit down to play. We breathe life into it, use our imagination to create and live out stories of our characters. And while we do so, we have the rules, the mechanics, to fall back on. Any time we don't know what to do, what to choose, we can lean on them. If you'll forgive me waxing metaphorical for a moment, if a roleplaying game is a plant, its rules are the structure around which it entwines as it grows, as we play it. And just as a structure can offer support, it can be stifling.
We don't need the rules. But with them, we can reach higher, go to places we wouldn't have imagined otherwise. Constraints breed creativity, being forced to grow in a certain direction gives the plant a shape. Just be sure you picked the right rules for the game you wish to play.
Especially Nasty – Trollflesh Golem
Flesh golems are stitched together from the bodies of many different creatures. They are disturbing in their own right, but what if it wasn't made up of just any old dead creatures? What if the parts weren't dead at all?
Trollflesh Golem
Huge 4th level wrecker
Initiative: +7
Sweeping claws +9 vs AC (2 attacks) – 21 damage
Patchwork regeneration 15: While a trollflesh golem is damaged, it heals 15 hit points at the start of the golem's turn.
When the golem is hit by an attack that deals fire or acid damage, or suffers a critical hit, its regeneration is permanently reduced by 5 as stitches come undone and a large chunk of its body falls off. It grows rapidly if haphazardly, becoming a spasming trollflesh – roll initiative as it joins the fight.
Dropping a trollflesh golem to 0 hp doesn't kill it.
Ignore this ability once the trollflesh golem's patchwork regeneration is reduced to 0.
Stitched together: a trollflesh golem is vulnerable to weapon attacks.
Energy magnet: Whenever a spell that causes cold, fire, force, lightning, or negative energy damage targets one of the flesh golem's nearby allies, the trollflesh golem has a 50% chance of becoming the main target instead. Therefore, spells that affect groups would spread out from the trollflesh golem.
Weakness of the flesh: Unlike other golems, troll flesh golems are not immune to effects and can be affected by the fears and madness of mortals.
Something had to keep the trolls from regenerating all this time. You're about to find out what it was.
Exposed necrotic core: Whenever a creature engaged with a trollflesh golem makes a natural odd hit or miss against it, the attacker suffers necrotic damage equal to 15 minus the golem's regeneration.
Spasming Trollflesh
It's a jumble of claws and muscle trying desperately to regrow, but it's forgotten what it used to be. It doesn't even have a head. Unfortunately, attacking everything around it seems to be in muscle memory.
4th level wrecker
Frantic Spasms +9 vs AC – 7 damage.
Natural even hit or miss: The spasming trollflesh pops free, moves to a random nearby creature and repeats the attack against it.
Maddened regeneration: spasming trollflesh heals to full health at the start of its turn. Reducing it to 0 hp kills it. When the trollflesh is hit by an attack that deals fire or acid damage, it can't regenerate during its next turn.
Why are narrative games so hard to grok?
Posted on June 8, 2017 June 8, 2017 by Magician
Nice clickbaity headline, well done. But it's true – narrative, "modern" games like Fate or Dungeon World are seemingly much harder to run, or even play, correctly, as compared to the more "traditional" games like D&D. By "running the game correctly" I mean using the rules to their full potential and in a manner articulated by the game's authors. Are the narrative games terrible at explaining themselves, are they inherently unintuitive, is there a problem at all?
The titular observation is based on personal experience (though backed by the prevalence of answers on Fate or DW questions on RPG.SE amounting to "you're doing it wrong, no really"), so some discussion of said personal experience is warranted. I'd started running RPGs with the release of the preview of D&D 3.0, some sort of quickstart pdf with 1st level characters and a fight against skeletons. As is fairly common, I was the only person in the group dedicated enough to read all the rules, so I ended up running the games. We worked our way through the free adventures WotC had put up on ther website. They were straightforward hack-n-slash affairs, or maybe that was the best I could manage at the time. I wasn't a good GM, far from it. That took years of practice, of very gradually expanding my range, of trying different approaches, of arguing on an Internet forum (hi, Rolemancer/GameForums), of learning from other GMs (it took moving to a different country to find them).
Through it all, I've never felt I was running D&D incorrectly. Sometimes I would misunderstand the way a rule worked – mistakes happened. Often I would not get the experience I expected. I didn't necessarily have great mastery of D&D 3.5 – not on the level of character optimization boards. As mentioned, the games frequently wouldn't be any good, just an unsatisfying sequence of fights. And of course I'd get mired in plenty of online arguments about superiority of particular playstyles – but that's just what they were, playstyles. "Roleplaying vs rollplaying". I never had a feeling that I'm just not getting how to run D&D, though, only that I wasn't getting how to be a good GM.
With well over a decade of GMing experience (oh boy), I finally decided to get out of the comfort blanket that is D&D. The tag "First Impressions" documents the more noteworthy of my forays. There were a few smaller games which we tried to play and simply couldn't get to work for us – they didn't make it onto the blog. Even in the games that did, a common theme would emerge: I'd read the book, and be uncertain I could actually run the game well. I'd read it again. Then I'd go online and look for existing discussion, easily finding other people with same concerns, which hardly dissuaded my fears.
This was particularly notable with Fate: the entire first campaign I ran in it was essentially a learning experience, both for myself and my players – seasoned roleplayers, all. I still don't use compels very well. I "cheat" in Apocalypse Engine games I run – I rarely think in terms of GM moves, simply running it as any other game. That's, pretty explicitly, against the rules.
But weren't narrative games meant to more naturally emulate the storytelling process we all grow up with? Dungeon World was once described as "D&D you always thought you were playing". What gives? Why are narrative games so damn hard to grock?
A part of it is due to the "narrative game vocabulary" still being developed. Roleplaying itself is still a relatively new hobby. Within it, certain playstyles have had decades longer and a whole bunch more games to grow, to figure out how to articulate their concepts. Again, take Fate as an example: it's gotten so much clearer over the years. It's progressed both in weeding out the unnecessary clutter from its rules, and in how it explains these rules. This process will undoubtedly continue.
But the main reason narrative games are hard to run the way they're meant to be is due to narrative games codifying how they're meant to be run. Narrative games have Opinions. Unlike traditional games, which give you tools to resolve situations that come up in typical scenarios of the game, narrative games also give you tools for creating these scenarios. Fail to use those well, and you fail to play the game well.
Why are you fighting goblins in a dungeon in D&D? You have a quest to get a MacGuffin, who cares, roll Initiative. Why are you fighting goblins in a dungeon in Dungeon World? The party had rolled a 3 on their Carouse move, choosing to gain useful information but letting things get really out of hand and getting entangled in the process. GM offered them an opportunity: they can get out of jail if they promise to go deal with goblins who've been robbing caravans. They can even keep whatever's already been stolen. Quest, MacGuffin, etc. But they flow directly from the game rules.
Naturally, you can, even should, have the exact same sequence of events in a traditional game. It's not like narrative games invented cause and effect. You don't need the rules to have a satisfying story. It is, however, telling how eager we are to adapt these narrative shaping structures to other games – e.g. Dungeon World Fronts in D&D by Sly Flourish.
And here's where we get to the core of the issue. A traditional game doesn't care if you have a satisfying story. It has some opinions on what stories should occur within it, and its mechanics do have an effect on these stories – even such seemingly minor rules elements as hit points matter. But, because D&D doesn't exist, a sequence of fights in 5×5 rooms is just as much a proper D&D game as a game of courtly intrigue and noble duels. As long as you roll a d20 + attack bonus and compare it to the AC of the target, you're good.
In contrast, narrative games have story bits and GMing practices "hardcoded" into their rules. Failure to compel PCs in Fate means failure to involve them in the plot. Failure to come up with an interesting consequence to a bad roll in DW calls into question the necessity of that roll in the first place. By making these narrative elements explicit, narrative games make our failures to implement them explicit.
And finally, if the group isn't after the narrative elements the game wants them to employ, or if the mechanics are not well written or well explained, making it hard to reconcile the rules-mandated narrative element with the rest of the story, it comes off as clunky. A failure to use an unwieldy tool the purpose of which you don't quite understand.
With mixed success (hah), narrative games describe tools, constraints, and practices they believe will lead to the game being played not just correctly, but well. Narrative games are hard to grok, because being a good GM is hard to grok. And it may be even harder to grok what the game considers to be a good GM.


text:
Flood warning update
May 15, 2019 Happening NowEditorial Staff
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry – North Bay District issued the following updated flood warning today (Wednesday).
It's in effect until Wednesday, May 22.
Description of Weather System
Forecasts for the North Bay District area expect variable precipitation over the next five days with accumulations ranging from 10-20 mm in the northern reaches of the district and 15-20 mm in the southern reaches.
Daytime highs for the same period are forecast to range from 10-15 degrees Celsius across the district, with nighttime lows ranging from 4-10 degrees Celsius in the northern reaches of the district and 0-8 degrees Celsius in the southern reaches.
Description of Current Conditions
The North Bay District has experienced significant increases in water levels and stream flows over the past several weeks.
The combination of repeated rainfall and snowmelt has resulted in water levels across the district rising significantly, reaching or exceeding flood levels in many areas.
In some areas water levels are expected to slowly stabilize over the next several days. In some locations the ground is saturated or remains partially frozen and as a result has little ability to absorb further precipitation.
The northern reaches of the district continue to experience snow melt which could impact water levels and flow.
The Ottawa River Watershed continues to be affected by last week's rainfall events combined with the remaining snow melt on the watershed.
Lake Temiskaming water levels are currently sitting at 179.86 m and are expected to stabilize or slowly decrease over the next several days.
Water released from Lake Temiskaming flows down the
Ottawa River to the Otto Holden Dam, in the Mattawa area, where higher than normal water levels continue.
Water levels in Mattawa are currently sitting at 155.39 m and could reach 155.55 m, however, Ottawa River water levels are expected to stabilize or slowly decrease over the next several days.
Due to the magnitude of this year's flooding, Transport Canada has put navigation restrictions in place on the Ottawa River between the Otto Holden Dam and the Deux Montagnes Lake, and the Mattawa River between Hurdman Dam and the confluence of Mattawa River and Ottawa River.
Navigation by non-emergency vessels is strictly prohibited. This includes pleasure craft and human-powered craft, such as canoes or kayaks.
The Montreal River Watershed area continues to see higher than normal water levels and flows which have reached or exceeded flood levels in many areas.
Water levels in the watershed are expected to stabilize or slightly decrease in the next several days.
In the Latchford area, Bay Lake water levels have exceeded the maximum lake level of 277.15 m and are currently sitting at 277.37 m.
Bay Lake levels are forecast to stabilize or slightly decrease in the next few days with the maximum discharge continuing from the Latchford dam.
Lake Temagami water levels continue water levels continue to remain higher than normal and are forecasted to rise slowly over the next several days due to snowmelt and pressures on the watershed.
The Sturgeon River, Lake Nipissing and French River areas have been impacted by higher than normal water levels.
Due to safety concerns and the higher than normal water levels safety booms in the following locations have not been installed before the upcoming Victoria Day long weekend:
• Latchford Dam
• Temiskaming Dam
• French River Dams; and
• Hurdman Dam
Recreational users (boats, jet skis, canoes, kayaks, etc.) are urged to stay away from dams and flood affected areas as high water levels and strong currents are dangerous for watercraft and pose a serious safety risk.
Reports of large debris (e.g. logs, docks, decks, etc.) are also being reported in flood-affected waters and pose an additional safety risk to recreational users.
Municipalities and residents, especially those in low-lying areas and along shorelines, are encouraged to monitor these conditions and prepare accordingly. Shorelines and banks adjacent to rivers and creeks are very slippery and unstable at this time and, when combined with cold open water, pose a serious hazard.
Road closures and sand bagging efforts continue across much of the North Bay District and many area residents have been impacted by localized flooding.
Flood warning update was last modified: May 15th, 2019 by Editorial Staff

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Garret is back with more commentary, pranks and love.
Superstore is open for business once more. NBC'S breakout workplace comedy is back for a second season after having 6.9 million viewers last season. From the bright-eyed newbies and the seen-it-all veterans, to the clueless summer hires and the in-it-for-life managers, together they hilariously tackle the day-to-day grind of rabid bargain hunters, riot-causing sales and nap-worthy training sessions.
This show also stars Colton Dunn who plays Garrett, a Cloud 9 associate who is paralyzed from the waist down. He is often heard making announcements over the store PA system. He enjoys pulling pranks on his coworkers and even customers, usually out of boredom.
The Koalition had an opportunity to speak to Dunn to discuss all things Garrett and what fans can expect in season two.
Fans of the show know Garrett is a ladies man, always looking for love. During the first season we've seen eclectic women come into his life; some who may or may not be morally depraved. But who or what exactly peaks Garrett's interest?
As seen in the season two premiere episode, there's really no line Garrett won't cross when it comes to the ladies, especially when he meets a bigot, homophobic, racist. Despite his dating choices, Garrett is trying to figure himself out and that includes many dating trials and errors.
When we last left Superstore, the workers walked out in protest after Glenn's firing. Jonah, Amy, Glenn, Garrett, Mateo, and the rest of the workers stand up to corporate management for Glenn's job, maternity leave, and overtime pay. In the real world, most big-box retailers don't give their employees great wage or benefits. It's real-world topics like this and the open-carry gun episode later in the season that sometimes got Superstore labeled with "tackling controversial topics." However Dunn doesn't see it that way.
The writers tackling these topics, have made Superstore fresh with ideas. Each character standouts on their own and this has made Garret the "voice of the sarcastic people," always chiming in with snarky remarks that, let's face it, we all would make.
An Emmy nominated writer himself, Colton Dunn's talents really shine through his ability to improvise, especially while on the loudspeaker or interacting with customers.
The closeness with the writers and their ability to really understand the character has created an atmosphere where everyone has an open dialogue with each other, thus making for a stronger show.
Despite the strike falling apart in season two, Garrett couldn't care either way about how the strike went or if they were all laid-off, which makes him stand out compared to the other Cloud 9 workers.
You can catch out Colton Dunn and the rest of the Superstore cast on Thursdays on NBC at 8/7c.


Project Date: May 2018 | Budget: £10,000-£49,999.
"I found Penman Interiors through Houzz. Dealing with Nichola has been an absolute pleasure. The whole process from start to finish has been amazing. Nichola sat down with my husband and I, went through what we were thinking re our house and then came back with fabulous colour boards for each room we were doing up. We worked together changing and adding bits and pieces and the end result we adored.
Nichola was also aware in some instances my husband and I wanted cheaper options and sourced those options for us, in other cases Nichola even found cheaper alternatives than ones I suggested. Nichola also has a great team that fits, builds, paints, applies all the choices we made from carpets, paintings, curtains, wall paper etc so we did not have to source people.
Project Date: Nov 2016 | Budget: £10,000-£49,999.
Project Date: Jun 2016 | Budget: £50,000-£100,000.
"I appointed Nichola Snuggs, Penman Interiors, after a competitive pitch process as the interior designer and project manager for works at my flat in Chiswick. Nichola's approach from the outset was creative, passionate and highly efficient. She was very thorough when we first met to discuss the project and produced a client brief that reflected our discussion accurately and provided a clear sense of her thoughtful consideration of how I would want to use the space by including lifestyle and preferences that were really reassuring.
She employed skilled and trustworthy professionals to undertake the works including carpentry, electricals, decoration and soft furnishings. She kept me updated at all stages of the process and sourced some beautiful items at a range of prices to suit the design brief and my budget. She has a keen eye for colour, shape and texture and all the different elements of the design including mirrors, kitchen tiles, lighting, furniture and ornaments have come together in perfect harmony.
Through Nichola my flat is transformed – it encapsulates all I wanted – a welcoming and attractive hallway, an open and stylish kitchen, reception and entertaining space, a peaceful and extremely comfortable bedroom and an overall look and feel that has not only increased my enjoyment of my property, but also its value!
Project Date: Jan 2016 | Budget: £50,000-£100,000.
Project Date: Sep 2015 | Budget: £10,000-£49,999.
Project Date: May 2017 | Budget: £50,000-£100,000.
"We've used Penman Interiors twice in the last year for different jobs in our home with excellent results. Nicola is a great person to work with and has transformed our living space having designed our kitchen, lounge, loft bedroom and bathroom.
We're not good at visualising how things will come together and were a little nervous from the outset but Nicola's vision, creative drive, enthusiasm, attention to detail and her style reassured us throughout.
Project Date: Oct 2016 | Budget: £10,000-£49,999.
Project Date: Feb 2016 | Budget: > than £100,000.
"We called Nichola from Penman Interiors to help give us some much needed inspiration to our latest rental property development. In this market it is a challenge to stand out from the ever burgeoning competition, and we wanted to achieve a cost effective, yet timeless product, that would help secure us really good quality tenants and rental yield, year after year.
Nichola had great vision and lots of fresh, exciting ideas, giving us a number of schemes to choose from. Once we had made our choice, she really took the stress away from us.
We were kept informed at every stage about what to expect and when to expect it and we were extremely happy to see the project completed on schedule. A significant failure from a supplier could have caused a major issue, but it was dealt with swiftly and calmly by Nichola. She also proved to be well connected with professional contractors, all of whom were knowledgeable, reliable and even tidy!
Project Date: Nov 2015 | Budget: £50,000-£100,000.
Project Date: May 2014 | Budget: > £100,000.
"I used Penman Interiors to refurbish two bathrooms in my home and was absolutely thrilled with the result. Both projects came in on budget and on time!
Project Date: Feb 2014 | Budget: £10,000-£49,999.
Project Date: Oct 2016 | Budget: Withheld.


Home Core All in one Concept Toilet by Talented Designer Dang Jing Wei.
4 Water Control buttons to only use what you need with minimum waste.
Built-in Swing out Vanity Mirror and Table area.
Design to save water by re-using water from the basin to flush the toilet.
A small foot print to save space when not in use.


text:
TBT: A club of 42
Gov. William Stratton meets with actor Howard Keel in 1957. Photo from
Illinois State Fair Museum Collection, Illinois Digital Archives – A service
of the Illinois State Library and the Office of the Secretary of State
When Governor Joel Matteson moved his belongings into the brand new Executive Mansion on Jackson Street in Springfield in 1855, he was a member of a very exclusive club. In the first two hundred years of Illinois history, that club would grow to only 42 members. That membership would include Civil War Generals, members of Congress, state legislators (and not just from Illinois), farmers, lawyers, a prosecutor of Al Capone, and a personal secretary to the President of the United States.
Eleven years after Matteson left office, Illinois broke ground on a new state capitol building just a couple of blocks west of the Executive Mansion. Today, the second floor of the capitol building is decorated with portraits of the former Illinois governors. Here is a brief history that only scratches the surface of the stories surrounding this very interesting group of leaders.
Illinois' governors have had a wide range of experience in education and in government. Early governors had little formal education. On the other hand, Governor John Hamilton in 1885 became the first to enter office with a graduate degree. Some held many different offices at the federal, state and local level, while others' only elected office was governor. One example is Illinois' second governor, Edward Coles, whose first run for office was his successful 1822 race for governor. But Coles' previous political experience had included several years in the White House as personal secretary to his former Virginia neighbor, President James Madison.
Some came from prominent political families, while others did not. Several governors had previously
served in the U.S. House of Representatives, and a few others would head to Washington after their governorship. Governor Edward Dunne became the only Mayor of Chicago to also serve as Illinois
Photo Source: Illinois Blue Book Collection
governor when he was chosen in 1912. Governor Ninian Edwards did not serve a single day in the Illinois legislature, but he did serve in the Kentucky House of Representatives in the 1790s before becoming Illinois' territorial governor and later the third governor following statehood.
Illinois has picked Republicans, Democrats and even a Whig to be governor. The first few governors served before organized political parties were firmly established. Governors have come from all areas of the state. Twenty-two of Illinois' 102 counties have been the home of at least one governor: from Governor John Stelle of Hamilton County in the south to Governor John Wood of Adams County in the west to Governor Adlai Stevenson of Lake County in the north to Governor Jim Edgar of Coles County in the east. Our governors also have had birthplaces as widespread as Virginia, Iowa, New York and even Germany and Estonia. In fact, only with the arrival of the 20th century did Illinois have its first Illinois-born governor: Richard Yates, Jr. who took office in 1901.
It wasn't until the third state Constitution was enacted in 1870 that a governor could run for re-election; though they were allowed to seek non-consecutive terms, which Governor Richard Oglesby would successfully do three times. Under the 1870 Constitution, Governor Shelby Moore Cullom would become the first governor to be re-elected to consecutive four-year terms, doing so in 1880. Governor Augustus French was elected in 1846 to a two-year term under the original state Constitution, then he was elected to a four-year term under the 1848 state Constitution, making him the first governor to be re-elected, but doing so under two different Constitutions.
The term of office for a governor has always been set at four years, with two exceptions. The 1848 state Constitution created a single two-year term which moved gubernatorial elections to presidential years, then the 1970 Constitution did the same in moving them back to off years, starting in 1978. Because of that short 1976-78 term, Governor Jim Thompson was chosen four times, but served for 14 years, which still makes him Illinois' longest serving Chief Executive. Thompson's time in office works out to almost one year for each day of the administration of our shortest-termed governor, William Ewing, who held the office for 16 days in 1834.
Like Ewing's, not all governorships have fit within that four year term. Two have ended tragically. Governor William Bissell was the first governor to die in office, in 1860, but not the last as Governor Henry Horner passed away in 1940. Others ended early for different reasons: Oglesby resigned ten days into his second term in 1873 to take a seat in the U.S. Senate. Cullom left for the same reason in 1883, going on to hold his Senate seat for 30 years. Governor Otto Kerner was appointed to the federal bench in 1968. In 2009 Governor Rod Blagojevich became the first Illinois governor to be impeached and removed from office.
Governor Otto Kerner in 1963
Photo from Sterling & Rock Falls Local History Collection, Illinois Digital Archives – A service of the Illinois State Library & Office of the Secretary of State
Governor Dwight Green was a former federal prosecutor and was a member of the team of lawyers who sent Al Capone to prison. During Thompson's time as a U.S. Attorney, one of the defendants he prosecuted was former Governor Kerner. Several governors, including Thomas Carlin, John Beveridge, John Tanner and Richard Ogilvie had been county sheriffs.
Future Illinois governors have been among the millions of Americans who have answered the nation's call in times of war. Governor Joseph Duncan was a veteran of the War of 1812 and Bissell commanded an Illinois regiment in the Mexican War in the 1840s. During his time in Congress, Bissell gave a speech which included his account of the battle of Buena Vista – an account which so angered another veteran of that war, Jefferson Davis, that Davis challenged him to a duel. Bissell accepted, but cooler heads prevailed and the duel never happened.
It was during the Civil War that several Illinois governors achieved great military success. Oglesby was a brigade commander under Ulysses S. Grant and was wounded at the battle of Corinth in 1862, but returned to the Army. He was promoted to major general, holding important commands in Tennessee and Mississippi over the next two years. Future Governor John Palmer was a corps commander in Sherman's Army during the Atlanta campaign. He ended the war as military governor of Kentucky, before he was elected governor of Illinois in 1868.
Governor John Wood left office in January 1861 and three months later was appointed to the post of Quartermaster General in charge of supplying food, weapons and equipment to the soldiers from Illinois. Beveridge fought in some of the major battles in the east, including Gettysburg, and then commanded a cavalry regiment in Missouri later in the war. Among the Illinoisans wounded during the fighting at Vicksburg was future Governor Joseph Fifer. Governors Hamilton and John Altgeld also served in the Army during the war. Lowden was an officer in the Illinois National Guard during the Spanish-American War in 1898, but his unit was not sent to the fighting.
Green served in the Army during World War I; as did Stelle, who was wounded in action; while Governor Adlai Stevenson joined the Navy but the war ended before he finished training. Governor William Stratton was a Navy officer in the Pacific during World War II, while Kerner served in the Army in North Africa and Italy. He went on to hold the rank of major general in the Illinois National Guard after the war. Ogilvie was wounded during the fighting in France and bore a scar on his face for the rest of his life. Governor Daniel Walker was a Navy officer in World War II and later during the Korean War as well.
On the day he became the Executive Mansion's first resident, Matteson couldn't have known all that was in store for those who would live under that roof. In all, 33 governors have had the honor of living in the mansion. Some of the mansion's younger residents have gone on to achieve political success in their own right. Richard Yates, Jr., lived in the mansion as a small child in the 1860s and then returned as Governor Yates in the early 1900s, so far the only son of a governor to hold the office himself. John G. Oglesby, son of the three-term governor, was twice elected lieutenant governor in the early 20th century and was an unsuccessful candidate for the top post as well. Another young resident of the mansion was Governor Fifer's daughter, Florence, who in 1924 would become the first woman elected to the Illinois State Senate.
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Clay dust fills the room as students start their projects this week!
8th graders are making Anthropomorphic Pottery that reflects their personalities and 7th grade students are making clay balloon creatures.
You would think that so much clay would get chaotic, but it is actually very organized and students know exactly what to do. From handouts that look more like comic strips to deliver instruction and systems to keep their clay organized (numbers/colors/cardboard cutouts), students look forward to this time of year as much as I do!
From creating comics, to finishing up glaze, students are working hard to get their various ideas and concepts communicated through the use of visuals. Students will be done glazing tomorrow and drawing comics by the end of this week and ready to move onto perspective drawing.
7th and 8th grade students are starting to add details to their clay creations. We will be working on this project throughout the rest of the week, and again when the clay forms come out of the kiln as bisque and ready to be glazed.
Students continued to work with clay today.
We are using armatures in 8th grade to maintain the shape of the bottle. Students are using water bottles for this and as you can see, it allows them to mold and shape without hurting the integrity of the structure.
I think this project is one of my favorites because we can use clay to express different aspects of our emotions or personalities. I really enjoy seeing the creative results when we finish.
Stay tuned for a video I am producing about this project and the 7th grade clay project, too!


The programme Leibniz MOBILITY promotes bilateral international exchange. Through its funding programs, it makes possible guest stays at Leipzig University by international scholars (Leibniz INVITATIONS) and supports research and networking stays at international universities and research institutes by doctoral researchers and postdocs at the Research Academy (Leibniz TRAVEL).
Leibniz INVITATIONS provides financial assistance for visiting international scholars and activities related to the promotion of young scholars at Leipzig University.
The Leibniz Program supports stays by international researchers. The minimum qualification is completion of the doctoral degree.
Leibniz INVITATIONS come with financial support for travel and accommodations. Remuneration is on the basis of Leipzig University Fee Structure (Chapter 5: Guest Stays). As a rule, academic guests are compensated up to 2600€ per month. In addition, assistance with organising the stay can be provided.
Leibniz guests are expected to participate in graduate education; this participation can for example take the form of lectures, workshops, excursions, and the summer or winter schools. In addition, participation in unconventional formats, such as the Science Café, is expressly welcomed. Guest scholars are asked to submit a brief report on the results of the stay following its conclusion.
Applications to invite guest scholars can be submitted to the Leibniz Programme at any time by instructors at all faculties and by doctoral researchers and postdocs, preferably from the classes of the Research Academy. An application form is available for making the request.
The director of the Leibniz Programme is responsible for application decisions.
During his or her stay in Leipzig, a formal guest agreement between the University and the guest scholar needs to be signed. Its details are to be clarified with a representative of the Leibniz programme prior to the visit.
Leibniz TRAVEL provides financial assistance to doctoral researchers and postdocs at the Research Academy for research and networking stays at international universities and research institutes.
Stays aimed at completing general research tasks, e.g. fieldwork, sampling, etc.
The allowance for travel outside of Europe will not exceed 1.000€; for within Europe, the allowance will not exceed 650€. An allowance for daily expenses cannot be provided.
Applications for the funding of research and networking stays for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers can be submitted to the Leibniz Programme at any time by doctoral researchers and postdocs from the classes of the Research Academy. An application form is available for making the request.
Prof. Klaus Mainzer (TU München) for the 10th Interdisciplinary Discussion: Technology and Language. Perspectives from "Digital Humanities"


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Treasury Sanctions Network and Individuals in Connection with Iran's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program
WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated members of a network of companies and individuals that have provided critical support to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its expeditionary unit, the IRGC Qods Force (IRGC-QF). OFAC is also designating Saeed Aghajani, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force (IRGC ASF) UAV Command. The IRGC-QF has used and proliferated lethal UAVs for use by Iran-supported groups, including Hizballah, HAMAS, Kata'ib Hizballah, and the Houthis, and to Ethiopia, where the escalating crisis threatens to destabilize the broader region. Lethal UAVs have been used in attacks on international shipping and on U.S. forces.
"Iran's proliferation of UAVs across the region threatens international peace and stability. Iran and its proxy militants have used UAVs to attack U.S. forces, our partners, and international shipping," said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo. "Treasury will continue to hold Iran accountable for its irresponsible and violent acts."
Today's actions are being taken pursuant to the counterterrorism authority Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, as well as E.O. 13382, which targets weapons of mass destruction proliferators and their supporters. The IRGC was designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 in 2007 for its role in Iran's ballistic missile program. The IRGC-QF was designated pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2007 for support to multiple terrorist groups. The IRGC in its entirety, including the IRGC ASF, was designated pursuant to E.O. 13224 on October 13, 2017.
Saeed Aghajani
IRGC Brigadier General Saeed Aghajani, who oversees the IRGC ASF UAV Command, directs the planning, equipment, and training for IRGC ASF UAV operations. Under his leadership, the IRGC ASF UAV Command orchestrated the July 29, 2021 attack on the commercial shipping vessel Mercer Street off the coast of Oman, which resulted in the deaths of two crewmen. Aghajani also was behind a UAV attack against a Saudi Arabian oil refinery in 2019.
Iranian forces have been responsible for several high-profile attacks against international shipping over the last few years, including two prior incidents this year alone. In 2019, Iranian strikes targeting six tankers were widely condemned, including an operation orchestrated by the IRGC in May 2019 that resulted in damage to Saudi, Emirati, and Norwegian vessels.
Aghajani is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having acted for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the IRGC ASF.
Kimia Part Sivan Company
Kimia Part Sivan Company (KIPAS) is an Iran-based company that has worked with Iran's IRGC-QF to improve the force's UAV program. KIPAS officials have conducted UAV flight tests for the IRGC-QF and have provided technical assistance to IRGC-QF UAVs transferred to Iraq for use in IRGC-QF operations. KIPAS has also procured valuable UAV components for onward use by the IRGC. Mohammad Ebrahim Zargar Tehrani has helped KIPAS source these components from companies based outside of Iran.
KIPAS is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, the IRGC-QF. Tehrani is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, KIPAS.
Abdollah Mehrabi and Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company
IRGC Brigadier General Abdollah Mehrabi (Mehrabi), as chief of the IRGC ASF Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization (SSJO), has procured UAV engines for the organization from Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company (Mado Company), an entity he co-owns and for which he has served as chairman. Mado Company and its managing director Yousef Aboutalebi (Aboutalebi) have procured UAV engines for the IRGC Navy and entities supporting weapons development for the Iranian military, including Iran's Qods Aviation Industries (QAI) and Aircraft Manufacturing Industries (HESA), which is a U.S.-sanctioned company that has provided UAVs to the IRGC.
The IRGC ASF SSJO was designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 on July 18, 2017 for being involved in Iranian ballistic missile research and flight test launches. The IRGC-operated QAI was designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 on December 12, 2013, while HESA was designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 on September 17, 2008. QAI has funded IRGC-related projects and contracts with Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) for aviation and air defense research. The European Union listed QAI as an entity linked to Iran's proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or development of nuclear weapon delivery systems in March 2012. HESA conducts research on, development of, production of, and flight operations for UAVs in Iran, and the IRGC utilizes UAVs manufactured by HESA.
Mehrabi is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 for acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the IRGC ASF SSJO. Aboutalebi and Mado Company are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 for having provided, or attempted to provide, financial, material, technological, or other support for, or goods or services in support of, the IRGC.
Sanctions Implications
As a result of today's designations, all property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of the persons designated are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with the designated persons or their blocked property. In addition, foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for, or persons that provide material or certain other support to, the persons designated today risk exposure to sanctions that could sever their access to the U.S. financial system or block their property or interests in property under U.S. jurisdiction.
View more information on the network and individuals designated today.
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Report to the Secretary of the Treasury from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee


Formulation Development is the core competency of Rubicon and we routinely carry out development of Generic formulations, Specialty and novel formulations, Consumer and Over-The-Counter (OTC) formulations with desired sensorial attributes, Excipient application studies and Placebo development.
Product development at Rubicon begins with Product Strategy Development. Desired product attributes are identified and prototype formulations are developed to meet the desired product attributes. Critical process parameters (CPP) are identified and process optimization studies are carried out based on Quality by Design (QbD) principles. Based on the formula and process optimization studies, final composition and manufacturing process is recommended for bio-study and scale-up.


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Contests 2018 Swedish Eurovision pick aims for 'people power'
Swedish Eurovision pick aims for 'people power'
After a couple of years treading water, it's fair to assume Swedish broadcaster SVT is ready to try for another win, aiming to equal the Irish at the top of the 'most wins' list.
Recent editions of their marathon song-selection process – Melodifestivalen – generated headlines for the wrong reasons, with fans suggesting a jury had undue influence over which song scored the Eurovision ticket.
Show leader Christer Björkman, yesterday revealed a (teeny tiny) change in the voting system to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet. Tuesday tends to be a slow news day, so we thought we'd share it anyway.
All (kinda) change
You might think the organisers might consider doing something about the voting app – viewers get to award up to 240 votes, and usually negate their scoring by spread voting. But no, that's staying.
As you may (or may not) know, 12 songs take part in the grand final, with each jury member awarding points to the top seven (12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1). The songs ranked below this scored zero. From 2018, the jury members will award points to the top ten songs (Eurovision style 12 down to 1). It means there are more jury points on offer – 638 compared with 473 last year.
It still means a cruel snub for two hopefuls, but the spread of votes when converted to a percentage should be (ever-so-slightly) more even. Obviously it's not really going to impact the winning song, but at least the song in eighth place won't get zero.
Previous articleIt's two down, nine to go in Belarus
Next articleAnd what's going on in the Czech republic?
9 January – I'll stay with you


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Catching More Hofmann Fakes (Part 9 of 13)
Table of Contents: Catching More Hofmann Fakes (Part 9 of 13)
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The Salamander Letter wasn't the only forgery caught by Brent. He will describe a few other forgeries of Mark that he caught, including one with Abraham Lincoln's signature. Mark wasn't happy about being caught!
Brent: There was another time that I was in Deseret Book Rare Books with Curt Bench. Curt showed me this rare Lincoln debate book. Abraham Lincoln published only one book in his lifetime. He did it on his own and that was The Lincoln/Douglas debates. He published them in 1858. He lost those debates. He probably won that debate, but he lost the debates because he lost the election to Douglas, and just had to run for president two years later. He printed up his debates, because a lot of people wanted to read them, they thought they were excellent on the slavery issues and the states and territories that it [slavery] could be allowed to move in to and so on. They were brilliant. They've been studied ever since. There were about 17 or 18 copies of it, that Lincoln inscribed to close friends, and half of those inscriptions are in pencil. Now, remember, I told you about Hofmann and pencil, which I think is an important distinction that's been missed by a lot of people.
GT: It really is [important.]
Brent: I think it's an important thing. I've got a lot of those pencil ones, as well as ink ones. But none of the pencils [forgeries] were ever charged because there's no test for pencil as such, just comparisons. I was with Curt and Curt shows me this original. The book was fine. Hofmann had no respect for history. It was a first edition or whatever of Lincoln's Douglas debate. 1860 is when they were published during the presidential campaign. He published the 1858 debates. So, I'm looking at the handwriting. It's inscribed by Abraham Lincoln. If there's anybody's handwriting that I really know very well, it's Lincoln's. So I'm looking at this, and it's not Lincoln's. I mean, it's not even close in a lot of ways. I told Curt, "Well, this is a phony. Somebody has tried to try to sell this to you as a Lincoln and it's not. It's fake. I went up to Hofmann's the following Wednesday morning. That's one of the times he really hit the fan. "How dare you tell Curt Bench that that's a fake? It came from…." I said, "Mark I didn't know that came from you."
GT: Oh, really?
Brent: Yeah, because Curt never mentioned his source to me. But I knew then where it had come from.
GT: So you caught him a few times on these forgeries.
Brent: Well, I did. I should have been a little smarter, shouldn't I? I bought half of them, so I'm not that smart. The point was, I'm not bragging. I'm just saying that I told Curt this is fake. Don't buy it. Hofmann was really angry at me. That was one of the four times he was angry at me. He laid into me up at his house on Marie Avenue about that. "How dare you tell Curt Bench? That hurts my reputation." He went on and on. I said, "Well, it's fake, Mark. I don't know who you got it from." That's what I said. I had no idea he was a forger. I was still buying stuff. But, whoever you got it from, you'd better return it because it's a fake." He said, "How do you know it's a fake?" I said, "Well, for one thing, Lincoln's signature goes up. The A, as always lower than the N. Sometimes, it's really [hard to see.] You have to look at it, because it's very close in every case, and sometimes Lincoln's signature gets a little sloppy. But that's just a trait Lincoln had throughout his handwriting. The N of his signature is higher than the A." So, I'm teaching the forger where he went wrong, on Lincoln. But, he let me have it that he was going to take it back to whoever he got it from. It's kind of hilarious. None of those were mentioned in the Hofmann case, because they were in pencil, and that's one of them.
Check out our conversation….
Brent Ashworth caught Hofmann fakes on multiple occasions.
Don't miss our previous conversations with Brent!
508: Brent Called Salamander Letter Fake!
507: Hofmann's Motive Against Church
506: Why 3rd Bomb wasn't Suicide Attempt
505: McLellin Collection Offers
504: Lucy Mack Smith Forgery
503: Mark's Unknown Half Million$ Deal
502: Hiding from Hofmann
501: Meeting Serial Killers
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More Podcasts with these Guests:
*Apology to Dorie (Part 13 of 13)
Emily Dickinson Forgery (Part 12 of 13)
Hofmann's Court Mistake (Part 11 of 13)
Tragedy Before Hofmann Trial (Part 10 of 13)
Brent Called Salamander Letter Fake (Part 8 of 13)
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Guest: Brent Ashworth
Mormon violence, Mormons & Crime
Historical Mentions Mark Hoffman, Mark Hofmann, Mormon History
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Did you miss me? I've been off swanning around Papua New Guinea on the Pacific Aria... (pics below) so I thought I'd just do a quickie highlight of the two weeks.
The next day we went to Kitava - a small poor island partway up the middle (my geographic references are pretty woeful here) and was amazed to learn that children had to pay K15 a year (approx $AUD7.50) to attend school and it is primary only. In order to attend high school the children must leave their island and travel to Port Moresby or Alotau to continue their education. The only income derived by the locals on Kitava is from the cruise ships and tourism opportunities. There are no doctors or nurses on the island, only Midwives who are "locally trained" which I found particularly scary.
Rabual was next. We chose to do a tour of the Rabaul area, starting with the Coconut Processing Plant and learned the locals are paid 25 cents a nut and it takes 15 to make a litre of coconut oil. We were given samples to bring home. Then we went to the volcanic observatory. There are over 50 volcanoes in PNG with 16 monitored as active including Mt Tavurvur which erupted in 1994 (over 6 days) wiping out Rabaul as we knew it. There is little left of old Rabaul and we drove over the airport and all you could see hidden under the ash was the roofline of one building. Everything else is gone. We visited locals, saw the location of a WW2 Japanese Bomber crash, visited a church and so on. The thing that stood out for me was when we visited the springs, we parked some distance away and had to walk over and as soon as you climbed from the vehicle the ground was really hot.
Next was Kiriwinna Island and it was pretty, though more commercialised and clearly used to travellers. If the heavens hadn't opened (something we contended with around lunchtime every day) we may have stayed longer... plus I guess I was incubating a nasty flu-thing.
Back on the ship we rocked and rolled (high winds sometimes over 40 knots) and big swells saw parts of the ship locked down, including our porthole!
We arrived back in Brisbane and headed for home. 10 days at sea summed up super quickly.
Please note: These images are my personal property. They are not licensed for use on covers, editorial use or other. Please do not reproduce without prior written consent.


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