![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What could I do if I just knew it didn't need to be perfect?
Well, our adulty weekend while my sister is out of town got off to a rough start. The dog is not reacting well to his shots, so every once in a while he was waking up yelping and crying out. We got him some doggy NSAIDs from the vet, and that seemed to help, but it was nervewracking. I hate him being in pain. I can't even watch him get the shots. At the moment, he's napping pressed up against me on the sofa, so I think the worst of it is over, thankfully. And he slept pretty well with me last night. (At least one of us did!)
I also took Dad to the dentist to have his consultation. The dentist was very nice and did not shame him at all (which I was concerned about), but the motherfucker was running 2 fucking hours late. Did they call us to warn us? No, of course not. Next week, I'll call and set up his first two extractions. Also, the office was not at all handicapped accessible. I had a bitch of a time getting the wheelchair around the office, especially in the tiny exam room and the xray room. Dad had to do some calisthenics to get from the wheelchair into the office chair. It was terrifying. You'd think they'd have some accommodations for old people, but not so much.
By the time we were done, I was exhausted. I came home and watched TikTok videos until 8, when I finally laid down until dad was ready for bed. Then, I went to bed for real, complete with puppy bedhog. I think I slept some? I woke up around 6, got up to take my Rybelsus, and lost the rest of the bed. I tried to get an hour curled up like a pretzel, but no dice. For a 30lb dog, he's very good at sprawling.
Hopefully, today will be a little more chill. I could really use it! I ended up taking 1/4 of a Valium once I got back from the vet, and that helped me relax some. Combined with the meds kicking in on the dog, it settled me down, because before we took Dad, I was in panic attack territory.
I'm considering Chinese food for dinner. I can go fetch it around 2, and it's always good reheated when we take our bio break so we can feed Dad. We're planning to take a slightly longer bio break than normal for that reason.
So yes, game today! We are starting the Lost Mine of Phandelver at 4pm. I've been looking forward to this game since they had it up for free on Roll20 about 6 months ago. It's a group of 9, which is a lot, but my normal game has 7, so it's not that bad. It is two new players, so I'm a little nervous about that. I want to make sure they have a good time. Especially since one has never played D&D at all, though they've played other TTRPGs. The other is usually the DM for their games, so hopefully I measure up!
This morning, I'm going to go over my session 0 notes. That's the safety briefing that we do at the beginning of each game. I don't expect this game to be a problem. It doesn't really have anything beyond violence in it. But, any DM worth the title will still go over their safety rules. I use the stoplight system. Green, which is hardly ever said is enthusiastic consent. Yellow is "I'm not sure about this, it's getting close to something that bothers me, maybe we could fade to black." Red is a hard stop. Stop the scene. Usually that's when you're going to use a retcon to change the scene appropriately. Also session 0 is the time to talk about play style, table rules, that sort of thing.
Once we finish this game, it's time to start prepping Strahd in earnest. I've got three games next week, but none of them require a ton of prep. Strahd, on the other hand, will require some time. I want to go through the module with a fine toothed comb to see what I need to do to adjust the text to avoid some of my players triggers. The hard one is going to be keeping the child abuse off screen. Like a lot of horror modules, child abuse and endangerment is kind of a shorthand for "these are terrible people in a terrible place." Sooo, that may take a little bit of work.
Okay, time to work on Session 0 notes. Everyone have a lovely Saturday!
I also took Dad to the dentist to have his consultation. The dentist was very nice and did not shame him at all (which I was concerned about), but the motherfucker was running 2 fucking hours late. Did they call us to warn us? No, of course not. Next week, I'll call and set up his first two extractions. Also, the office was not at all handicapped accessible. I had a bitch of a time getting the wheelchair around the office, especially in the tiny exam room and the xray room. Dad had to do some calisthenics to get from the wheelchair into the office chair. It was terrifying. You'd think they'd have some accommodations for old people, but not so much.
By the time we were done, I was exhausted. I came home and watched TikTok videos until 8, when I finally laid down until dad was ready for bed. Then, I went to bed for real, complete with puppy bedhog. I think I slept some? I woke up around 6, got up to take my Rybelsus, and lost the rest of the bed. I tried to get an hour curled up like a pretzel, but no dice. For a 30lb dog, he's very good at sprawling.
Hopefully, today will be a little more chill. I could really use it! I ended up taking 1/4 of a Valium once I got back from the vet, and that helped me relax some. Combined with the meds kicking in on the dog, it settled me down, because before we took Dad, I was in panic attack territory.
I'm considering Chinese food for dinner. I can go fetch it around 2, and it's always good reheated when we take our bio break so we can feed Dad. We're planning to take a slightly longer bio break than normal for that reason.
So yes, game today! We are starting the Lost Mine of Phandelver at 4pm. I've been looking forward to this game since they had it up for free on Roll20 about 6 months ago. It's a group of 9, which is a lot, but my normal game has 7, so it's not that bad. It is two new players, so I'm a little nervous about that. I want to make sure they have a good time. Especially since one has never played D&D at all, though they've played other TTRPGs. The other is usually the DM for their games, so hopefully I measure up!
This morning, I'm going to go over my session 0 notes. That's the safety briefing that we do at the beginning of each game. I don't expect this game to be a problem. It doesn't really have anything beyond violence in it. But, any DM worth the title will still go over their safety rules. I use the stoplight system. Green, which is hardly ever said is enthusiastic consent. Yellow is "I'm not sure about this, it's getting close to something that bothers me, maybe we could fade to black." Red is a hard stop. Stop the scene. Usually that's when you're going to use a retcon to change the scene appropriately. Also session 0 is the time to talk about play style, table rules, that sort of thing.
Once we finish this game, it's time to start prepping Strahd in earnest. I've got three games next week, but none of them require a ton of prep. Strahd, on the other hand, will require some time. I want to go through the module with a fine toothed comb to see what I need to do to adjust the text to avoid some of my players triggers. The hard one is going to be keeping the child abuse off screen. Like a lot of horror modules, child abuse and endangerment is kind of a shorthand for "these are terrible people in a terrible place." Sooo, that may take a little bit of work.
Okay, time to work on Session 0 notes. Everyone have a lovely Saturday!