The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

Katherine Kurtz and Scott MacMillan => Archived Chats => Chat Logs => 2017 Archive => Topic started by: Evie on August 20, 2017, 07:24:15 PM

Title: KK Chat--20 August 2017
Post by: Evie on August 20, 2017, 07:24:15 PM
[06:16.08] * KK (~473e1dd9@OWIRCN-1bdd9d77.org) has joined channel #derynI_destinations
[06:16.18] <Jemler> hi kk
[06:16.20] <KK> Hi, guys.
[06:16.35] <Evie> Hi!
[06:16.36] <@TheDeryni> Hello, Katherine.
[06:16.38] <~bynw> Hi KK
[06:17.10] <The_Bee> some guy in the Midwest is planning to make a bundle selling eclipse stuff.
[06:17.15] <The_Bee> Hi KK
[06:17.19] * Kelric_ is now known as Kelric_the_exhausted
[06:18.22] * The_Bee offers Kelric-the-Exhausted a mug of expresso.
[06:18.49] <KK> What kind of eclipse stuff?  I don't know that we'll even be able to see anything tomorrow, because of weather taht's expected.
[06:19.21] <@TheDeryni> A MUG of espresso? WOW!
[06:19.43] <The_Bee> art work, among other things.  metal sculptures, t-shirts, stuff like that
[06:20.11] <@TheDeryni> Maybe cloud dispersing stuff?
[06:20.21] <The_Bee> LOL!
[06:20.50] <Evie> Dixie (as in the paper plates and cups company) has a craft project online which they meant for helping shield children's eyes from light getting around eclipse glasses that are too big for tiny faces, but it seems some people think the craft is meant to substitute for the proper glasses rather than supplement them. 
[06:21.12] <KK> I'm going to try to get a pair of the glasses in the AM, over at the library, but I won't bother if it's socked in.
[06:21.53] <The_Bee> I'm not counting on eclipse glasses being available this late.
[06:21.55] <Jemler> a lot of people may go blind tomorrow because people are dumb enough to believe them.
[06:22.02] <KK> I plan to use a pinole projector, even if we get some glasses.  It's an 85% coverage, if the clouds allow it.
[06:22.08] <Kelric_the_exhausted> That's what happens when you go to Gen Con ;)
[06:22.13] <Evie> So they are currently dodging scathing comments from people who are accusing them of endangering kids (with some justification for the accusations, although that's not what the company meant to do), and trying to correct people posting comments like "Oh great, I can't find the special glasses so I'll just make this!"
[06:23.23] <The_Bee> I may look at the shadows of a tree.  They say you can see tiny crescents in the spaces.
[06:24.08] <Evie> Yes, the leaves act sort of like multiple pinhole cameras
[06:24.13] <~bynw> Kelric_the_exhausted, well it was the 50th year for GenCon
[06:24.18] <KK> Yes.  Look on the ground under the tree.
[06:25.13] <Jemler> someone should write a short story about an eclipse in gwynedd.
[06:25.15] <The_Bee> Remind me--what's Gencon?
[06:26.04] <Evie> science fiction convention
[06:26.31] <~bynw> largest gaming convention held every year originally in Lake Geneva WI (Hence the name Gen Con), then moved to Milwaukee and now currently in Indianopolis
[06:26.51] <The_Bee> thanks for the info
[06:27.23] <KK> I went to that once.
[06:27.35] <~bynw> yes you did. i was there :)
[06:27.38] <The_Bee> Was it fun?
[06:28.02] <~bynw> tika and i picked you up at the airport too when you flew in
[06:29.05] <~bynw> back when DAG (Deryni Adventure Game) was first published and Anne had a booth in the dealers room there. ahhh memories
[06:29.11] <KK> With me not realy being a gamer, it was...an interesting convention.
[06:29.34] <Evie> LOL!
[06:29.48] <The_Bee> I'm not much of a gamer either.
[06:29.50] <Evie> I would love to play DAG.  I have it, but no one to play it with me here
[06:30.03] <Evie> And no one consistent evening to be able to play it online
[06:30.18] <The_Bee> I've never gotten to play it.
[06:30.40] <KK> I failed as a game-master.  I was too hard on the players.
[06:30.42] <Evie> If there were a Deryni story-based game on Storium that I could add a scene to when time permits, I'd be all over that
[06:31.16] <Evie> There is a fine line between making a game challenging and killing off all your player characters.  :-D
[06:31.28] <The_Bee> I've played some on-line RPGs
[06:31.33] <~bynw> KK, yes you did try to kill off most of the player characters
[06:32.50] <KK> Well, I wasn't aware taht I was trying to kill them off; I was just trying to make it interesting for them.
[06:33.12] <Evie> Yes.  Player characters aren't like book characters. If you kill off the players, your story tends to end abruptly.  :-D
[06:33.21] <~bynw> KK, you should have a tab showing a PM on the CGI chat. And I did fix the Kiwi chat so it is now full screen too
[06:33.45] <The_Bee> I noticed.  Thanks, Bynw
[06:34.19] <~bynw> as a long time gamer both a player and GM, sometimes you do kill off those pesky player characters. usually because they do something ... stupid and the dice are not with them
[06:35.33] <Evie> Yes, death can be an appropriate natural consequence for irredeemable stupidity.  That said, I've been known to fudge a dice roll on occasion to allow for a narrow escape if it meant keeping the game going with players intact.
[06:35.41] <Evie> Well, maybe not intact.  :-D  But alive.
[06:35.52] <Evie> Even if just barely
[06:35.58] <~bynw> of course that happens too
[06:36.19] <The_Bee> Yup.  What's a lost limb or two among friends?
[06:36.54] <Evie> Especially if the course of action wasn't stupid, but the roll just ended up being exceptionally unlucky.  Or if someone took a risk, but it was in an effort to do something especially heroic
[06:37.10] <~bynw> i've had some of my own characters have bad rolls and managed to survive, barely, and by all accounts they should be just dead
[06:39.08] <~bynw> as an fyi, now that i have my evenings free again ... i'm open to doing some more gaming. even if its just a one-shot DAG or otherwise
[06:40.03] <Kelric_the_exhausted> that being said my Personal Cubical Randomization Projectiles (tm) were misbehaving VERY badly this weekend... I believe some discipline may be in order...
[06:40.36] <Evie> Have you ever looked at Storium, bynw?
[06:40.44] <~bynw> nope Evie
[06:40.52] <Evie> ++www.Storium.com,,   
[06:41.25] <Evie> You should be able to check out some of the games that are open to the public, and perhaps participate in one or two without a paid membership
[06:42.06] <Evie> I think you can even lead one (but only one) without being a paid member, just to test it out, but you have to use one of their world templates. That said, the templates are very customizable
[06:43.04] <Evie> It's usually more worth your while to pay the fee (which is not a high one) once you are used to the game mechanics, which gives you more options to customize your world, set privacy, etc.
[06:43.44] <Evie> AnnieUK was running a Storium game for a while that was pretty fun. It was in a sort of Dresden Files sort of urban fantasy world.
[06:45.43] <Evie> Annie is actually working on a book series now that she is co-writing with another writer she met via Storium. I've beta-read her first draft of Book 1, and it was very good.
[06:46.03] <The_Bee> Maybe we could do an adventure game in the forum, like the kind I've played elsewhere.
[06:46.27] <~bynw> play by post is always a possibility too
[06:46.51] <The_Bee> Yes, that's what I was thinking.
[06:47.29] <Evie> I tried to start one years ago on the Forum, but I think it was too open-ended a start, and no one else jumped in.
[06:48.16] <The_Bee> You need a plot and a goal.
[06:49.44] * KK (~473e1dd9@OWIRCN-1bdd9d77.org) Quit (Quit: CGI:IRC)
[06:50.03] <The_Bee> A sign-up post is also helpful
[06:50.04] <~bynw> we lost KK
[06:50.14] <Jemler> where'd she go?
[06:50.18] * KK (~473e1dd9@OWIRCN-1bdd9d77.org) has joined channel #derynI_destinations
[06:50.25] <Evie> Rehi,  KK
[06:50.29] <The_Bee> rehi KK
[06:50.31] <~bynw> wb KK
[06:50.32] <KK> Whoops, hit the wrong button.
[06:50.42] <Jemler> portal malfunction because of the eclipse?
[06:50.58] <KK> Quite possibly.
[06:51.05] <Jemler> :)
[06:51.22] <Jemler> where is DR?
[06:52.10] <@TheDeryni>  "The star's light emanates and shines briefly no more Foretold by the Keeper of the Old Scrolls of Ancient Lore. I hold The Colourga in stasis and through its own hesitation Bring forth the Crescent Lake's gestation. With the power I now hold and command I summon the waters' borne Stallion to defend and protect Him upon this darkened land!"
[06:52.21] <Evie> She is at a family get-together event that is also in the eclipse path, so it's sort of a combination celebration
[06:52.28] <@TheDeryni> Oops.
[06:52.49] <Evie> LOL, TD
[06:53.03] <Jemler> td, what was that?
[06:53.16] <@TheDeryni> I was looking for this, but didn't know I had copied it to my clipboard
[06:53.25] <Evie> LOL!
[06:53.55] <The_Bee> Where's it from?
[06:54.25] <@TheDeryni> A story I wrote seven years ago. Sorry about that
[06:55.50] <KK> Them there's pretty powerful words.
[06:56.19] <KK> I assume you have a cosmology to back them up?
[06:56.27] <Jemler> "The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings. and why the sea is boiling hot or whether pigs have wings."
[06:56.53] <@TheDeryni> May 19, 1007
[06:57.42] <The_Bee> You were writing srories more than a thousand years ago?!!
[06:57.57] <@TheDeryni> Lol
[06:58.34] <The_Bee> or is that when the story was set?
[06:58.34] <~bynw> maybe he's a TimeLord too
[06:58.35] <@TheDeryni> No,but that total eclipse was the one referenced in the passage
[06:59.08] <@TheDeryni> Yes, Bee, when it was set
[07:00.59] <KK> In ancient times, an eclipse must have been a truly terrifying thing.
[07:01.23] <The_Bee> a demon eating the sun!
[07:01.50] <@TheDeryni> An omen, for sure.
[07:01.51] <~bynw> animals and insects behave as if it was night
[07:02.21] <KK> Fortunately, it doesn't last long.
[07:02.43] <~bynw> yeah but still something terrifying
[07:03.09] <@TheDeryni> And comets. King Harold II bad omen was Hale's comet.
[07:03.14] <KK> I'm not sure how much light a 15% sun will project.  Sort of like twilight, I suspect.
[07:03.29] <~bynw> much like the first time any europeans saw a tornado rip through the open plains
[07:03.52] <KK> Yeah, Europe doesn't have anything euivalent.
[07:04.03] <KK> equivalent
[07:04.55] <@TheDeryni> Err, Haley's
[07:05.10] <~bynw> get an F4 ripping up country side and it's the wrath of god
[07:06.04] <Evie> I helped clean up some of the aftermath of the F5 that went through Tuscaloosa, AL several years ago.  It looked like nightmare country
[07:07.49] <KK> I can't imagine how it must feel to experience a tornado.  I grew up with hurricanes, but you get lots of advance warning when they're coming.
[07:08.18] <The_Bee> Isaw a comet one summer, but I don't know which one.
[07:10.25] <Evie> The closest a tornado has come to my house was within a couple of miles, but trust me, that is close enough!
[07:10.25] <~bynw> i've had some close calls in my life with tornadoes
[07:11.18] <~bynw> been in a car where rain becomes dirt ... that is frightening
[07:11.30] <Evie> Even at that distance, the sound can be pretty scary as you're sitting in the basement hoping it doesn't get any closer
[07:11.55] <Evie> Wow!
[07:12.23] <The_Bee> like a freight train, I've heard
[07:12.26] * Kelric_the_exhausted (~IceChat9@32F4F9.AFCB16.CAC8DB.A93869) Quit (Quit: Light travels faster then sound, which is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak)
[07:13.02] <Evie> One of the freakiest storms I've been through was one that hit a few months ago. No tornado, but it was bright sunlight just minutes earlier, and I'd been outside on a walk. I went inside, and after about five minutes in my craft room, suddenly the sky outside went green and I heard hail.
[07:13.36] <Evie> So I ran down to the basement, and as I passed the front door, a gust of wind and a tree branch falling down knocked my front door wide open
[07:13.59] <KK> Wow, scary!
[07:14.00] <~bynw> green sky is a big sign of a possible tornado
[07:14.12] <Evie> Needless to stay, I didn't stop right there on the landing to close it! I was intent on getting into the basement since I thought there was a tornado nearby
[07:14.16] <The_Bee> It must have been the Incredible Hulk having a fight with the Jolly Green Giant.
[07:14.33] <Evie> But as it turned out, nope, it was a freak microburst, and we had bright skies and sunlight about 5 minutes later
[07:14.40] <Evie> And marble-sized hail on the ground
[07:14.44] <KK> Yes, moving the furniture around Upstairs.  ;-)
[07:16.32] <@TheDeryni> I must depart. I hope you have a great night and enjoy the eclipse if you can.
[07:16.38] <~bynw> cya TD
[07:16.59] <~bynw> i like a good hard thuderstorm minus any tornado
[07:17.12] <The_Bee> bye TD
[07:17.28] <Evie> bye Deer
[07:17.41] <KK> It's about time for me to head out as well.  See you guys next week, hopefulolyw ith all of us having good eclipse stories to tell.
[07:17.54] <~bynw> keep giving links to the chat to folks I see on FB who havent been in the chat a while but no takers yet
[07:17.58] * TheDeryni (~TheDeryni@Flirt.Storyteller.Wiseass) Quit (Quit: Then the Mare of Prophesy reared as a)
[07:18.06] <Evie> OK, havea good evening!
[07:18.11] <Jemler>  have fun tomorrow, but be safe.
[07:18.15] * KK steps onto her Portal, waves goodnight, and disappears in a shower of green sparkles.
[07:18.33] <Jemler> evie, you have\ the log?
[07:18.40] <KK> Nighters.
[07:18.43] * KK (~473e1dd9@OWIRCN-1bdd9d77.org) Quit (Quit: CGI:IRC)