Community

We’ve hacked Kyle’s account to bring his readers a photo of something discovered in the rubble outside PungCo labs.

Hint: Might be useful for Gamma World Game Day

~Wizards of the Coast

It turns out that they are turning on the Beta Chamber today.

And by today, I mean NOW.

Oh, man. I hope that's not my book

They’re activating the Beta Chamber tomorrow—finally. I can’t wait to see if it does half of what Dr. Bruna says it will. With those goggles, it’s hard to see much of anything. 8)  
 
Postponing the lunchtime game session—too much to get done, and it’ll probably take all night to even come close. (We’ll pick up on the next episode: “Thoqqua Rodeo” this weekend.
 
 
OK—onto cup of coffee #17 and more testing.

OK, it’s been a while since I posted an update about the game. The party came up with the idea of barricading side passages to lower the chances of wandering monsters. (I had them actually build their wall in the maze using aquarium gravel.)  They actually spent the whole session working on the wall and stuck with it even though Waldo came the long way around twice during the construction. (Enc. #1: Two Umber Hulks; Enc. #2 Myconid Outriders on War Turtles) Good combats and some really funny quotes: “They probably think we’re goldfish!” “No, *those* are Googamoos” and “Shroomkateers!” Good game, Punks.

We had a test run of Beta Chamber yesterday, and it was successful. Big. Sigh. Of. Relief. I wasn’t there (not high enough clearance), but Mike told me he heard that they were able to send a video sensor through the chamber for almost 15 seconds, and they saw some dude carrying a big rifle. It said “Mark II3G5 Fusion Rifle.” Sounds bad. Ass. And also, where the hell are they sending sensors that they’re picking up dudes packing weapons? Unless it was some new NERF toy. I’d buy that.

Fell asleep in the lab—had some downright bizarre dreams, which I’m going to try to use as encounters and creatures in the D&D game. (Working on a monster that’s basically a sentient swarm of bees—kinda like in those old cartoons.)

So, one of the interesting benefits of working in a company that does
defense contracting is that you get to play with automatic weapons
occasionally. Here's how it's done: you get put on the list as an
engineer on call who goes out to the client (i.e. the military) to make
sure the equipment you've sold them is working out in the field. You
make some friends while you're out there, because most malfunctions are
user error that could have been fixed if they RTFM'ed, and nobody wants
to look like the guy who forgot to plug the unit in, so you make things
look like all the unit needed was a screw tightened and suddenly
everybody is your buddy.

This leads to invitations to the firing range, because nothing is as
funny to a soldier as an engineer trying to fire a rifle on full auto.

This was my first time out in the field, and Rob and I got invited out
to waste about 3000 rounds of ammo in the span of about an hour and a
half. OMG is that fun. Knocked me on my butt a couple of times when they
showed me the completely wrong way to stand when firing the things (not
the automatics, btw) and I have a bruise the size of a melon on my right
shoulder, but I completely DESTROYED one target's left leg and another
had a line through his groin all the way up to his shoulder. Ha! Better
than a video game by far!

Makes me want to get back in to martial arts. I was pretty good when I
was in high school. Got to brown belt, started practicing with the staff
and the bokken. Too bad the nearest dojo is an hour away. Also, I’m glad I’ll never have to actually use any of this stuff. Ever. I have a whole new respect for the armed forces.

I had to pick up another test bunny today. Jenny did the paperwork and decided to name him “Hoppy.” But she typoed the form and labeled him “Hoopy.” I call him Hoopy Frood. Anyone? Anyone?

*Edit:* R.I.P. Farriby?

So, Pung’s Punks are borrowing some tech from the repair lab to really put our Halloween costumes over the top—Expedition to Barrier Peaks IRL, baby! (Bobbo lost a bet and will be a Vegepygmy.) If you’re in the Freesboro area on the 31st, stop by the Smoke, prepared to be devastated by costume contest-winning awesome.

-

In other news, we’ve come up with a completely innovative way of handling random monster encounters—cockroaches. (Not as gross as you’d think! And if you can’t beat ‘em…) Here’s how it works: you place one roach in the maze, and whenever it runs into the party’s miniatures, there’s a battle. I’ve even recently been altering the probability of encounters by putting a small piece of food or a pesticide tablet with the minis to attract or ward off the roaches.

You can use that idea if you want, just make sure your maze is sealed up on the edges. I’ll try to post some pictures of an “Encounter.”

________

Edit - I was cleaning up after game and was doing one last run through of the conference room we use when I saw this:

Glowing roaches! It looks like they've have somehow been exposed to the power source for the beta chamber. I'll have to let maintenance know about that tomorrow...

I found some pics of my cat that Alice took with my camera. I’m gonna submit ‘em to ICHCB as a surprise (she checks it every day). Soon, Lazer will be famous. (Didn’t find the book, but she didn’t ask. In the clear for now. )

 
My mom forwards me a lot of weird scammy spam. I ignore most of it. But one of them caught my eye today. Subject line was: Only YOU Can RETURN Us To The GLORY of Yesteryear! Way to go all caps, am I right? But it sounded like a Ren Faire thing, and I’ve been known to dabble. Anyway... It was kooky. It was no Ren Faire, but a bunch of guys trying to preserve our “cultural identity” by restoring old buildings. Like putting a new façade on some post office downtown is going to make me feel more connected to my country? Puh. Leeze. They called themselves Restorationists. I tried to find a website, but couldn’t. They’re probably too small.

Here’s something that could be cool—a little sneak preview (of what, I’m not sure).

OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. I may or may not have an acquaintance who may or may not do a little work for a company we’ll call Lizards of the Toast. Wink. I was helping him troubleshoot his laptop and found some cool art in a folder marked Project G. (My buddy has artist friends, so this could be just for fun—but I know he’s been working on something “interesting,” as he puts it.)