hairylarry's blog

Welcome to archive.gamerplus.org, permanent archive of the old Gamer+.The new Gamer+ is at gamerplus.org.

I posted all newsfeed items on the Main page so it takes 20 seconds to load.

Since I started Gamer+ I have been running the Oxwall social network software. Unfortunately the most recent version of Oxwall was written in 2016 which in internet years means it's an antique.

Not only that it's not working well and I barely got some of the pages working at all after the new sql server update.

So ...

I am going to archive the existing Gamer+ site. All posts, photos, etc. will be available to read but there will be no new members or new posts on the Oxwall vesrion of Gamer+.

I am going to install a new Gamer+ social network site using the federated software, friendica. If you are already on mastodon, peertube, funkwhale, or other federated services you will be able to follow and share with Gamer+ users.

And/or you can start an account at the new Gamer+ and continue posting to Gamer+ just ike you have in the past.

Change is hard but change is good. And this sounds right to me. I'm looking forward to it.

Saturday March 11 at 11:00 AM Central join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat. The topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction including some Science Fiction coming to life, AI Art.

Inspired Unreality is held on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord.

Here's more info and a link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

At the last Inspired Unreality we had a nice AI Art show and tell. Alan posted these pictures he generated for his Chronicles Of Ember RPG.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/144

Here's a link to Alan's page.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Alan

TabletopBellhop says, Check out The 199.5 Bonus Episode.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5060

Vivian and I had a big old time last weekend. We took a short trip to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, to visit Eclectic Geekery and play a set at Beatle's Park.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/EclecticGeekery

Here's a link to my Youtube video edited from my livestream.

https://youtu.be/73vDatM6DSs

Hairy Larry playing Chill Jazz Piano at Beatles Park.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1011

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday, February 25, join us for Inspired Unreality Open Game Chat. Starting topic will be AI Art. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held at 11:00 AM Central on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

You can't really follow the controversy without some skin in the game so I've been doing some AI Art generation while I continue to read about issues. I even discussed AI music composition at my last lesson and have more to cover next week.

About that controversy.

Generative AI is a legal minefield
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5046

U.S. Copyright Office Rules A.I. Art Can’t Be Copyrighted
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5029

Art-istic or Art-ificial?
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5028

And I've been generating elves.

Two Elves Walked Into A Magic Forest
https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/142

Midjourney Dark Elves
https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/141

Do you play Diablo? Check out Crucial Tips For A Diablo 2 Ladder Season Start from mmowts's blog.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1001

Please forward this email to your AI friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1007

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

What have you been reading? What have you been watching? What have you been playing? That's the topic for Inspired Unreality open game chat at 11:00 AM on Saturday, February 11. Second Saturday = Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link, here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I wrote a book.

"Lost In The Woods", a readaloud fantasy book by Larry Heyl using AI artwork.

Soon to be a Zine and a Minizine.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5023

And, speaking of AI Artwork, ain't it interesting how intellectual property rights are being shunted aside by highly mobile fandoms.

Paizo’s Jim Butler discusses ORC, OGL 1.1, and more
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5024

This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5017

I will say this about AI Art. It certainly is addictive.

Please forward this email to your AI friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/1000

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat will resume tomorrow, Saturday, January 28, at 11:00 AM Central. Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Here's a link for more information about Inspired Unreality.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. We want to know what interests you.

Caper finished the Harshnag song in our family game, so for an opening topic I will unveil that.

In two weeks the topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. We've moved to the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month to give us more flexibility on our trips to Eclectic Geekery in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Beatles Park here I come. (As soon as it warms up.)

I invented the supernatural 20.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5004

Did you ever want a really remote monastery on one of your quests?

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/5002

I wrote "Mouse Plural", A Jupiter's Ghost Super Short.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/998

Jupiter's Ghost is a collaborative effort to create a Science Fiction setting that can be used by anyone.

https://intergalactic.computer/

The Jupiter's Ghost creations are licensed CC BY-SA.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Please forward this email to your geeky friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/999

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Mouse Plural

If we have houses
Why not mouses
If we have mice
Why not hice

I have done extensive research using an ancient computer program called the Wayback Machine.

The truth is there is no such thing as mouse singular. There is never one mouse, they come in families.

If a group is a nest
What about the rest?
The rest are in another nest.

What we have on the ship is what used to be referred to as a house mouse. Ship mouse doesn't rhyme but it will have to do.

The problem I foresee is their breeding. Mice begin breeding when they are 30 days old. Then they have litters. And then back to breeding. In thirty days all the mice in the litter are breeding.

Computer scientists call this an exponential explosion. Look at the graph of an expoential explosion. It's frightening.

If mice go unchecked on the ship, exponentially exploding and eating and eating, we will soon leave post scarcity behind and we'll all be eating mice.

The Wayback Machine mentioned an ancient predator called cats that were used to keep the mice population under control.

I'm not sure what a cat is but apparently humans like cats more than mice. Cats also have litters of kittens so it's competing exponential explosions.

A clowder of cats
makes kindles of kittens
and they're so cute!

I saw pictures on the Wayback Machine and mice are really cute too.

For some reason there are thousands of pictures of cats for every picture of a mouse.

So maybe they won?

We better find out where we can get cats sometime in the next 30 days.

---

Licensed CC BY-SA

Jupiter's Ghost is free culture collaborative science fiction.

https://intergalactic.computer/

Schedule shift for the New Year.

Inspired Unreality open game chat will be held on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month at 11:00 AM to Noon, Central Time.

The Holidays may be over for you but we've got one more Holiday to go. We have a birthday party on January 14, so Inspired Unreality will resume starting on January 28.

If You Play You Win actual play will be held on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays at 1:00 in the afternoon at Eclectic Geekery and on the internet. Some days we will be Cozy Adventuring In Tobbins Shire. Some days we'll have a one off with guest DMs. Some days I'll be livestreaming chill jazz piano in Beatles Park. On those days we will skip the actual play.

We hope to resume If You Play You Win in February depending on the weather and the Covid stats. If You Play You Win is also subject to Eclectic Geekery availability so, as always, we will send a Gamer+ News announcing our events.

In my other newsletter I discuss Bebop Beatniks new album, "Church".

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4998

I also talk about it some on my podcast, From The Archives Of Something Blue.

https://sbblues.com/2022/12/31/dj-hairy-larry-presents-bebop-beatniks-playing-gotta-lotta/

I got a nice Christmas present from my granddaughter, DM Lizard.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4997
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/SearchingForGyphons

Did you ever want to run an adventure in colorful mountains? Here's a photo gallery of free culture and creative commons photos taken right here on Earth.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/138

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/997

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

We are celebrating the New Year with a Bebop Beatniks retrospective album, all originals performed live, from 2016 through 2019.

Here's the link to free download and streaming at archive.org.

https://archive.org/details/bebop-beatniks-church

Or if your prefer Youtube Music.

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mf1d0SMAHV60JyGIA-a-i5L0GsFUWfM-Y

I talk about the new album and my song, "Gotta Lotta" on From The Archives Of Something Blue. Here's a link to the podcast on the Something Blue website.

https://sbblues.com/2022/12/31/dj-hairy-larry-presents-bebop-beatniks-playing-gotta-lotta/

Don't miss Something Blue this Saturday, January 7, to hear some more jazz released in 2022 by Joshua Redman, Mary Halvorson, and Wadada Leo Smith.

Something Blue is broadcast on KASU, 91.9 FM and streaming on the internet at kasu.org, every Saturday at 10:00 PM Central.

It got cold in November. And then it got cold again in December. As far as Vivian and I are concerned we've had enough of that for one winter.

We had a great Christmas with most of our family here on Christmas Eve and then a big family Christmas with all of our kids and grandkids on New Years Day.

It don't get no better than that.

Stay in touch. Let me know about your projects and your news.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

The last Inspired Unreality of the year is on Saturday, December 3, at 11:00 AM Central. We will be discussing Fantasy and Science Fiction. We've got opinions and we hope you do too. I just finished "Harrow The Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir and now I'm in the middle of "This Is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. We are making viewing arrangements for the new "Willow" series. We're all big "Willow" fans, here.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

FollowMeAndDie posted a video and a blog.

"In my latest blog post I discuss the Saint Mark Turnip Festival invented by my players."

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4962

"My Latest YouTube Video: Mastodon For New Users - Twitter Refugees is live on YouTube."

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4961

I post my Mastodon link at the bottom of every Gamer+ news.

My daughter Megan has been giving me advice on new Fantasy and Science Fiction novels. She says, "Readers are the best people because they see the world through many sets of eyes. They know both that their experiences are not unique and that no one sees the world in quite the same way as them."

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4965

And I posted the video of Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians live at Blues Fest, 2022.

https://youtu.be/YO-_K4y9WIY

Enjoy!

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/995

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat on Saturday, November 19, at 11:00 AM Central. All gaming is on topic and the opening topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Follow Me And Die posted about his twitch stream called How To Mastodon For Twitter Users - Keep in Touch with fellow TTRPG folks with the possible demise of Twitter.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4945

You may have noted my Mastodon link in the signoff of these emails. I've been communicating in the fediverse for years. Mastodon is open source software run all over the world by businesses and hobbyists. I think it's about to achieve critical mass whether Twitter survives or not.

The fediverse is decentralized so you kind of have to shift gears in your head. Other apps besides Mastodon can communicate with Mastodon users, for example you can share your Peertube videos to Mastodon accounts and the replies somehow end up on your Peertube account.

Very interesting.

I posted 15 brilliant color fantasy illustrations from "The Russian Story Book" drawn by Frank C. Pape. Published in 1916 the illustrations are public domain.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/136

Here's a joke I posted in the Newsfeed.

---

A priest, a pastor and a rabbit entered a clinic to donate blood. The nurse asked the rabbit: “what’s your blood type?”

“I’m probably a type O”, said the rabbit.

---

I get plenty of those.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/994

Thanks,
Hairy Larry

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

It's our fiftieth! All those family games. Fifty years of family games. What a thing to think about.

Our family is coming in so there will be no Inspired Unreality open game chat in the morning. We will be back in two weeks on November 19. And then December 3 should finish the year. So, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. Wait! Didn't we just have Halloween?

For more info about Inspired Unreality and Gamer+ go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

We went to Eclectic Geekery last Sunday and I enjoyed playing in Lizard's 5e game. I've never been an Elven Bard before. I lean to halfling.

https://eclecticgeekery.com/

I posted two public domain photo albums of fantasy art.

Etteilla’s Livre de Thot Tarot (ca. 1789)

Selected cards from a full Tarot deck.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/134

The Children Of Odin

The Book of Northern Myths by Padraic Colum illustrated by Willy Pogany 1920.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/135

I also have an interesting music project going, Creative Commons Jazz.

https://jazz.mixremix.cc/music.htm

Make a playlist for your next game. Enjoy!

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/993

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Well ... Caper has a sketchbook. Full of mushrooms from the shire. Some of the sketches are annotated in an arcane language called English Script. Join us at Inspired Unreality as we decipher Caper's sketchbook.

Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. We've been enjoying our explorations of Tobbins Shire and personally, I really dig Caper's sketchbook.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/133

Inspired Unreality is held on the first and third Saturdays each month except coming up in November and December we're on Holiday hours, first Saturday only.

For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Caper's sketchbook was actually drawn across 42 years by a female mycologist named M. F. Lewis. Now public domain.

Blues Fest was a blast with Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians opening the festival. We had more than a few of us who are Related To Geeks on stage and several guests as well.

https://relatedtogeeks.com/

I added an audio player to my Creative Commons Jazz library and it made all the difference. It's handy being able to enqueu and play entire albums.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4905

Please forward this email to interested parties and share this link!

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/992

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality, now on a twice a month schedule, will be held at 11:00 AM Central, on Saturday, October 1. Since it's the first Saturday of the month our topic will be fantasy and science fiction.

It's a big topic and one we love to talk about. If you're into novels, short stories, movies, television series, or games, if it's fantasy and science fiction it's on topic. Let us know what you think about the new stuff or the old stuff. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I write super shorts. The thing I like about super shorts is that you can finish a story in one sitting. Here's one of my favorites.

Hegel, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein
by Larry Heyl

It was my brother Jeff who was the doer. Always making things, working on this or that, good at math and physics in school.

I was the thinker. Always gazing off into the distance pondering the big questions. What is life? What is death? What is man? What is woman?

It’s that last one that really puzzled me. Jeff got married, started his own business, got rich. I got tongue tied around girls, took a philosophy degree, and had an income commensurate with my degree. I check the want ads daily. Never have I seen Philosopher Needed - Top Dollar.

So I never understood why the aliens abducted me. It was Jeff they wanted. They must have got their wires crossed.

Now I’m not gay but I didn’t mind the anal probe so much. Learning the alien language wasn’t too bad either. They put a silver disc on my forehead and I started talking to them. It was the interview that really got them.

They kept asking about stuff I didn’t know, technology, armaments, rocket ships, manufacturing. I wasn’t much help. But I gave them a good dose of Hegel, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. I don’t think they were ready for that. They started babbling. They sent me up the ladder. I kept expounding and their confusion deepened. Evidently philosophy wasn’t their strong suit. Like I said they got the wrong guy.

They could only deal with me for so long. Before I knew it they had beamed me back home and departed Earth post haste. And that’s how I saved the world with philosophy.

https://sffshortstories.com/?x=entry:entry190110-110731

Click the link to see the great public domain art I found to illustrate this story.

I had a composition recital last Monday. It was great to perform with Bebop Beatniks again. I livestreamed the show and made a movie.

https://youtu.be/1SbuCbEu1v8

We will be playing at Blues Fest at the Craighead Forest Bandshell on October 9. Here's the schedule.

2:00 PM Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians
3:00 PM Bebop Beatniks
4:00 PM In The Gray
5:00 PM Anna and the Tanks

Pics here too.

https://deltaboogie.com/bluesfest2022/

Please forward this email to your gaming friends. Or maybe they like jazz or science fiction.

Share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/991

Thanks
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

I'm sending this out a week early to promote Jazz In The Forest on September 26.

Jazz In The Forest

Craighead Forest Bandshell
Monday, September 26, at 6:00 PM
Free and open to the public

Repertoire
---
African Violet
The Blue Crane
Low Earth Orbit
Sail Boats
Malaysia

All songs by Larry Heyl

Personnel
---
Bebop Beatniks
Joseph Curtis - trumpet and flugelhorn
Jeremy Jackson - bass
Alex Washam - drums
Conley Hunt - auxiliary percussion
Larry Heyl aka Hairy Larry - piano and vocals

And here's the Blues Fest schedule for October 9.

Blues Fest 2022
Craighead Forest Bandshell
Jonesboro, Arkansas
October 9, 2022

2:00 PM
Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians

3:00 PM
Bebop Beatniks

4:00 PM
In The Gray

5:00 PM
Anna and the Tanks

Picnics permitted.
Free and open to the public.
Bring yard chairs and blankets for your comfort.

There are photos at this link.

https://deltaboogie.com/bluesfest2022/

So this is really big news for me. I'm as excited as a podcaster.

Please let me know what you've been doing. I love hearing from newsletter readers.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

As always, changes are afoot.

When we started doing Inspired Unreality open game chat every week we were younger. And yet, somehow, even though we're retired, we now have more responsibilities. So we're going to have to scale back.

Instead of weekly we are moving to twice a month. On the first Saturday we will discuss fantasy and science fiction. On the third Saturday we will continue questing in Milyagon or Tobbins Shire.

So, tomorrow is the third Saturday and we will be questing. Please join us to play or just stop on by to say hi and chat for a few minutes. We're always glad to hear from you.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Eclectic Geekery has changed their hours. And, starting in November they will have Holiday hours and be open every day except Monday.

https://eclecticgeekery.com/

You may have noticed that they are opening on Saturdays at noon now instead of 10:00 AM. So, Inspired Unreality will no longer be hosted at Eclectic Geekery for our quests.

We will, however, do other projects with them in the future. What exactly that will be, we shall see. Our daughters run the store and I am committed to resuming our visits after the current surge dies down.

FollowMeAndDie posted about the Gateway To Adventure Trilogy For Old-School Essentials Kickstarter.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4888

And Blues Fest is back. On October 9 at the Craighead Forest Bandshell my friend Doug Butler is continuing the Blues Fest tradition. We don't have a full schedule yet but I will be playing chill jazz piano as well as with my family band, Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians. I will post the full schedule and more details in the next Gamer+ News.

Which will be in two weeks. Because Gamer+ News is going on a twice a month schedule too. We will continue to remind you of Inspired Unreality on the Friday before we gather together to chat and play. So, see you there. Saturday September 17, at 11:00 AM. This is your reminder.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/989

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Well ... we missed last week. Our water heater broke and our daughter and son in law were here helping us put in a new one and by the time we were done we missed.

So. This week on Inspired Unreality our topic will be fantasy and science fiction kicked back one week. Please join us to discuss this niche that now dominates popular entertainment.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

While browsing tumblr I found some more great fantasy artwork. Here's a link to a link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4885

Even though we missed last week we did discuss science fiction. My daughter read a column she had written about a generational shift away from personal contact where younger people prefer to order for themselves in an app rather than call in an order and talk to a person.

That reminded me of my super short.

AI Autocomplete
by Larry Heyl CC-BY

In the future everyone will have AI Autocomplete, first for writing, then for talking. The AI will be so good that it soon starts guessing right 100% of the time. People select the Just Say It For Me option since their AI Autocomplete always guesses right.

This is the future of humanity, packhorses for AI Autocompletes talking to each other.

Or is it already happening now?

https://sffshortstories.com/?x=entry:entry180208-201254

Click the link for some great artwork that really fits the story well.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/988

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Doug Butler works at Craighead Forest Park and he's a musician. When I went to Guerilla Livestream Craighead Forest Lake he talked to me about restarting Blues Fest. We've talked a couple of times since then  and it looks like we're going to have Blues Fest in October. (fingers crossed)

It's still in the planning stages and we don't have a firm date or band list yet but Doug's band is going to play, I'll be opening, playing chill jazz piano, and, hopefully, a couple more acts will fill out an afternoon of music.

I am helping but this is Doug's project. I think it's great. I've been playing at the bandshell but I've missed Blues Fest. Vivian and I are just to old to put on that kind of show anymore but you know I will be helping out however I can.

More details to come in the next Delta Boogie Newsletter and on Delta Boogie.

https://deltaboogie.com

Even though I graduated last December with my second degree I'm back in school again taking composition lessons. I am rehearsing for a jazz recital where I will play five of my songs with Bebop Beatniks.

Here's a link to me livestreaming my recital repertoire.

https://youtu.be/kjVh_VR7vPo

I wrote two woodwind quintets last term and I am working on getting them read, rehearsed, and performed. Maybe by The Howling Winds, a student woodwind quintet with a bari sax instead of a bassoon. That will take a slight rewrite.

And the composition studio is writing for the trombone studio this term so I'm going to arrange "Bunnies" for a jazz band with a trombone front line.

All of this is really exciting to me.

Please let me know what you've been doing, musically or otherwise.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday morning. Inspired Unreality. 11:00 Central. It's the first Saturday so our topic is fantasy and science fiction. Games, movies, books, televison, art, poetry. If it's fantasy and science fiction it's on topic.

I finished "Gideon The Ninth" and while I'm waiting for "Harrow The Ninth" I'm reading "The House In The Cerulean Sea" by TJ Klune. Megan recommended it and she also recommended a beautifully written book, "This Is How You Lose The Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar. She's reading it with the Eclectic Geekery fantasy/sf book club.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/EclecticGeekery

Join us tomorrow for more fantasy and science fiction.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Here Lies The Hatchet. Vivian said the words that inspired this meme. I found the public domain photo by Linnaea Mallette at publicdomainpictures.net. Megan created the engraved effect in GIMP. It was a family effort.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4875

It's a little early for Halloween but Megan disagreed. Please share.

Here's some great fantasy illustrations by Donn P. Crane published in "Journeys Through Bookland" in 1922. All illustrations are public domain.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/130

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/986

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality! Open game chat. Saturday morning at 11:00 Central. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unrealiy is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Go here for more info and a link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next Saturday the topic will be fantasy and science fiction.

We had family game last Saturday with DM Carl, Courtney, Emily, Connor, Hairy Larry, and Vivian. I was having too much fun gaming with my grandkids to follow Vivian's lead into a much more creative ending. She was Clair the Cleric and she was converting the Spider Monsters. But we killed them first.

Not really my style. I find dice marathon combat boring but like I said I was right in there with the rest of the fighters. I do have to say the spiders had kidnapped the farmers son. They weren't really good spiders. But I need to pay closer attention to Vivian's lead. She comes up with the best stuff.

I'm back in school with three projects under way.

I am rehearsing for a jazz recital with five of my original songs. Bebop Beatniks at the Craighead Forest Bandshell. We will be livestreaming the band rehearsals and the performance plus videos and an album. At least that's the plan.

I wrote two woodwind quintet pieces last term and the Astate woodwind quintet, the Howling Winds, is going to play them. They have a bari sax instead of a bassoon so that will take a few adjustments.

We are working with the trombone studio this term as part of our composition lessons. I'm going to do an arrangement of "Bunnies" for a jazz band with a trombone front line.

Exciting!

Talking to Megan she told me many indie authors are doing audiobooks of their own work and posting them on Youtube. So I thought I could do that with my stories. I could even take some printouts along when we're Guerilla Livestreaming Scenic Northeast Arkansas and Guerilla Livestream some audiobooks.

Fun!

What have you got in the oven? Inquiring minds want to know. My contact info is below or better yet post to Gamer+.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/984

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Ok, change of plans. We will not be playing at Eclectic Geekery Saturday morning. Instead Inspired Unreality open game chat will take place, as usual, at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

So, Saturday morning in the best tradition of DMs everywhere, we're winging it. We may play. We may chat. We will be there. Come and join us if you can.

We are planning on resuming actual play at Eclectic Geekery and on the internet next month.

Sometimes you don't get to do things exactly the way you planned. But there is a silver lining. Our son, DM Carl, is coming to visit. We always have a good time visiting with his family and playing old school D&D. I even cleaned the back porch aka the family room aka the new twitch studio. So that will be great.

Later this weekend we'll have a big family gathering with DM Kier, DM Carl, and DM Hairy Larry all getting together with our families over at Gretchen's house. She's not a DM but both of her sons are. We've got a lot of DMs in our family.

I'd like to say that they're a chip off the old block except they were all DMing way before I took it up. I just love playing too much to want to be the DM. Actually it was creating the Milyagon locale and the Just Quest RPG system that led me to become a DM. And then that led me to Tobbins Shire and our current campaign.

Everyone's going to level up after solving the mystery of Mister Mistmeister. Not only did we save the shire from the mist we found a new home for the acorn people. I wrote this first Tobbins Shire quest up in a booklet including extremely cute acorn people artwork by Dubanci.

You can download the booklet pdf or view it flat at this link.

https://hairylarryland.com/milyagon/

On the music front, school starts next week and I am already rehearsing for a jazz recital. I wrote two woodwind quintet pieces last term and I hope to get them played too. Stay tuned for links to the recordings.

Here I am practicing my recital repertoire, five original jazz songs.

https://youtu.be/kjVh_VR7vPo

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/983

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us for open game chat on Inspired Unreality, Saturday morning at 11:00. This week it's bring your own topic, all gaming is on topic. Sometimes we write dice tables. Sometimes we just chat.

Next week we'll be adventuring in Tobbins Shire again at Eclectic Geekery in Walnut Ridge. This is a hybrid game played around the table and on the internet. Turns out the technical side of this may be easier than I thought. We shall see.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more information and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week we discussed fantasy and science fiction, mostly fantasy. This week I've been reading Science Fiction, "The Calculating Stars" by Mary Robinette Kowal, winner of the Hugo and Nebula best novel awards in 2019. It's an alternate history based on space exploration and it is also an experiment in writing old school science fiction assuming that the novel is contemporaneous with the story. It's been very interesting and like all great science fiction it deals with a lot of difficult social questions concerning America then and now.

I continue working on "The Story Of Mister MistMeister And His Many Transformations" proofreading for typos and doing minor rewrites for clarity. Here's the link to the pdf files.

https://hairylarryland.com/milyagon/

I timed it last night and it takes a half hour to read aloud. Great story with a lot of humor and you can clearly see the game behind the adventure.

Saturday NEA Gamers Guild is holding a library game day in Jonesboro and Sarah and Kier will be helping with that while Megan holds down the fort at Eclectic Geekery. I am looking forward to visiting with family both this Saturday and next when we'll take the drive to Walnut Ridge for more visiting and Just Quest.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1176261366287803

https://www.minizines.cc/flat/?x=entry:entry200105-065552

https://eclecticgeekery.com/

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/982

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday morning at 11:00 Central we will be chatting about Fantasy and Science Fiction on Inspired Unreality. And have I got stuff to talk about. I just finished a TOR Anthology of short stories. Now, for me, novels are too short. I need at least a trilogy to get excited. But I really liked this collection, Some Of The Best Of tor.com 2021.

And then they hit me with a free Brandon Sanderson Wayne and Wax novel, "The Alloy Of Law". And coming out in November, "The Lost Metal" will conclude the Wayne and Wax series.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4862

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I also want to mention that "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman is on Netflix.

Vivian and I started our Tobbins Shire campaign in February and it was so much fun it turned into a monthly feature on Inspired Unreality. In May we moved our table to Eclectic Geekery while still maintaining our presence in the gamerplus chat rooms. And last month we finished our first story arc.

So I took all of the session summaries and background info and turned it into a 16 page booklet, "The Story Of Mister Mistmeister And His Many Transformations". It's a hoot!

Just today I added Acorn People illustrations by Dubanci. Here's his website.

https://dubanci.cz/

And here's a link to the pdf files for the booklet and, if you can't print duplex or want to read online, to an 8 1/2 x 11 version.

https://hairylarryland.com/milyagon/

Please share "The Story Of Mister Mistmeister And His Many Transformations" by forwarding this email to your gaming friends and sharing this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/981

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Delta Boogie Newsletter - August 2022 - Guerilla Livestreaming Craighead Forest Park

My grandson, Conley, joined me at Craighead Forest Park on July 13, 2022, to Guerilla Livestream Craighead Forest Lake. We played behind the bandshell with the lake behind us. We didn't get any ducks or geese swimming behind us but you can here them on the recording.

https://youtu.be/y6U2L5qSn3o

Thanks to Robin and Jerry for coming out to enjoy the music.

Since then I played two solo shows.

Hairy Larry Guerilla Livestreaming The Big Pines July 18, 2022
https://youtu.be/oyp6QZ2HkGk

Hairy Larry Guerilla Livestreaming In The Sun July 26, 2022
https://youtu.be/hBPwcTXbuNc

Enjoy!

The Story Of Mister Mistmeister And His Many Transformations

Starting last February Ari and Caper have been adventuring in Tobbins Shire, west of Milyagon, through Wilken Woods, and across the river. We've been campaigning once or twice a month, sometimes with more PCs, and in July we finished a story arc.

I turned all of the session summaries into a booklet that can be downloaded here.

https://hairylarryland.com/milyagon/

My daughters, Sarah and Megan, have opened a books, games, and hobby store in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and the last three sessions were played at their store.

https://eclecticgeekery.com/

So it's been a good month for us in spite of the heat wave. I hope you've been staying cool and staying busy. Please let me know about your projects, music, and art.

Thanks,
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

It's open game chat on Inspired Unreality Saturday morning at 10:00 Central. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more information and an invite link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week is the first Saturday in August so we'll be discussing Fantasy and Science Fiction.

For an opening topic this week I am turning to "The Wizard and the Djinn", a setup for a D&D one off that I wrote almost 2 years ago.

https://sffshortstories.com/?x=entry:entry201125-112710

I don't really write modules. I do a setup, then goals, and I try to have assets ready, like pregens, NPCs, monster stats, maps, and pictures, to keep the gameflow smooth. I think it's more fun if the PCs determine the arc of the quest with their decisions in game.

So, we can chat about this awhile and then move right along to your favorite prepared or unprepared topic.

Here's a nice painting of Neil Gaiman and a link to his free short stories on the internet.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4856

And I found some acorn illustrations for "The Story of Mister MistMeister and his Many Transformations". I think I've got everything I need but we'll see when I do the layout. In addition to my blog post I'm going to do a PDF file that will print a pamphlet with all the text and illustrations.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/127

I love this stuff.

Please forward this email to your friends that love this stuff and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/979

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us Saturday morning at 11:00 for Inspired Unreality open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. Vivian and I will be holding down the fort hoping to chat with you. Or working on our own projects like my Idioms For Idiots D20 dice table.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/968

I used this last week when the party had an impromptu picnic with two farmers working beside the road. Turns out, one of the farmers was an idiot.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Go here for more information and an invite link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

We also finished my first extended campaign, a low combat adventure in and around Tobbins Shire on the other side of Wilken Woods west of Milyagon. We started the campaign last February and enjoyed it so much we added it to our regular schedule on the third Saturday of the month. For the last three sessions we have been gaming around the table at Eclectic Geekery. Last week DM Carl joined us and we had a hybrid game, around the table and on the internet.

I took all the session summaries and turned them into "The Story of Mister MistMeister and his Many Transformations". Here's some spoiler free excerpts from last weeks game. (By spoiler free I mean I'm not giving away any of the jokes.)

...

On our way we saw two farmers taking a picnic break from their toil. Wyleth hailed them and asked if we could join them. They said, "Sure." and asked about the ale so Caper poured a round. Clairen was happy to have an impromptu picnic with new friends.

Snurgi was inspired to compose a poem on the spot.

We was walking along and found some farmers
We knews they was safe, they wore no armors
Our friend sat down plop, to eat a potluck
And we was confident, no one would harm her

One of the farmers was an idiot but they were both really nice and we enjoyed their company.

...

The Read Headed Rascal said, "Look." and he looked up the valley. When the party followed his gaze they saw a large circle colored green and yellow and some colors they didn't know. In the circle was the valley, fully populated by sentient oak trees. And when they looked under the trees their was a village of acorn people with houses, roads, and carts pulled by beetles. The sentient oaks did so well growing in the valley that the acorn people lived lives of their own before finding a final resting place where they could lay down and wait to be an oak tree.

And looking up to the top of the hill they saw four giant sentient oaks that must have grown from the acorn people they had carried across the river. They decided to name them the sentinel sentient oaks.

...

For the whole adventure go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/977

So, join us tomorrow for open game chat. In two weeks the topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. And then on the third Saturday in August we'll be back in Tobbins Shire seeing where the dice lead us.

We've been having a heat wave in Arkansas and I know we aren't the only ones so Stay Cool!

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/978

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

In Tobbins Shire there are Tobbins and Mubbins and Muffens plus an occasional Baggins or Took. It is a trading Shire, on the river, with docks, warehouses, and stores. On one street there are big houses for biguns whose kids like swimming in the river off the docks. Some of the Tobbins, Mubbins, and Muffens join them but you won't catch a Baggins or a Took in the water.

Mr. MistMeister
---
Ari and Caper run across Mr. MistMeister, a dangerous water elemental, on a hike outside of Caper's Shire.

Before he was Mr. MistMeister he was a water sprite. One day when he was flying a potion maker, greatly afraid, threw a potion of gaseous form on the sprite. The combination of magicks locked the elemental into it's gaseous form and Mr. MistMeister was born.

He used to enjoy coralling loads of fish into fishermen's nets so they became so heavily laden that they would break or even capsize the fishing boat. In his mist form he has been corraling people by showing them abandoned houses from the past and luring them into his misty form. He is not evil. He just does what he does because he doesn't know what else to do. He could be convinced to take up another avocation but he can only be destroyed with very high level magic that counters both the potion and fey magic at the same time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:August_Malmstr%C3%B6m_-_Dancing_Fairies_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Pictured is Dancing Fairies painted in 1866 by the Swedish painter August Malmström. Unlike the faires pictured Mr. MistMeister cannot return to the water but is locked above ground as a mist.

Background material above was written by Larry Heyl aka DM Hairy Larry

Cast Of Characters
---
Ari is a human healing sorceress who is bossy and good at reading people.
Caper Tobbins is a halfling bard who is likable.
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat who is protective and obnoxious.
Clairen is a friendly bouncy dwarf.
Edge Bravestone is a cautious, friendly fighter.
Wyleth is a soldier who was raised on a farm.
Snurgi Snurgison is a dwarf who is a fighter and a poet.

In The Shire
---
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
---
At Inspired Unreality Ari and Caper visit the Shire. So now we have a Milyagon Shire and we'll have to place it on the map. Probably through Wilken Woods and across the river.

We used Shire friendly dice tables found in the Hearth & Hillside Home.pdf, a name your own price download.

https://weirdandblue.itch.io/hearth-and-hillside-home

Caper's Hobbit Hole

First we rolled up elevenses from the Sweet Treats table. Caper rolled Tart rhubarb pie with clotted cream and an extra flavour that everybody either loves or hates and Ari rolled Sticky honeycomb fresh from the tallest oak this side of Woolshod Hill which Caper had recently rescued from the bees.

As a good hobbit would, Caper suggested they follow up on elevenses with Breakfast for Dinner. Caper rolled Spicy sausages with flavours from the distant empire of Man and Ari folllowed up with a still-twitching boiled crab that always goes for the nose. So sausages and crabs it was after Caper detwitched the crab with a single blow.

Unable to eat any more Caper suggests a walk through the woods to enjoy the sun. Before they get out of town they meet weary halfling travellers trekking into town wearing the scandalous fashions of a distant March. In fact their garb is brightly colored and entirely inappropriate for the shire. They said some fairies had played a trick on them changing their sensible clothes for this rubbish.

Ari escorted them into a second hand clothes shop where, Mr. Muffen, the owner assured them all he could arrange an exchange for more suitable attire knowing that the brightly colored clothes would sell well when caravans of humans passed through town. No accounting for the tastes of humans. Brightly colored scarves just assure that you'll be seen in the woods.

After walking a short way out of town Ari and Caper met A well-groomed pony with courtly ribbons, plodding under the weight of a pompous Shirrif and his tall feathered hat.

The Shirrif was complaining about the fairies who he said, "Tied the ribbons to my pony and gave me this stupid hat. Caper said Mr. Muffen will trade that hat for a better one and he probably knows where you could trade the pony for a sturdier horse. They talked on for a while, as one does well met in the woods, and then Ari and Caper continued their hike while the Shirrif plodded on to town.

The Rescue
---
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
---
Last week the Shirrif was plodding on to town and Ari cast detect magic on him. All the ribbons on his pony as well as his hat and the feathers in his hat glowed with fey magic. Caper thought, "Interesting" and he also thought the Shirrif's stout little pony might make a good gift for the Jenkins kids.

Ari explains aura colors to Caper. Red means blood, white means blind or a child, no aura means the human doesn't care about colors. Ari said the Shirrif had no aura which didn't surpise her.

They continue along the trail and coming to the top of a ridge they see mist filling a field that opens up before them, evening light glinting off the dewy roof of a distant cottage. (from Scenery On Your Long Treks d12 table)

They walk through the field towards the cottage and Ari, feeling like something might be wrong here recommends caution. Tude's fur ruffles up on the back of his neck, a sure sign of danger.

Caper suggests they drink some farseeing tea so they can see through the windows from a safe distance. He quickly gathers twigs and builds a fire boiling water in the teapot from his hiking pack. Ari sprinkles in some of the tea and Caper tends the pot while Ari looks around, wondering.

Caper pours two small cups and Ari without thinking stirs her tea with the silver wand from the fairy, King Groad, that enhances teas and potions. After putting out his fire Caper is quickly running about exploring the house through the windows and open door from a distance of about 100 feet. He can tell the house is empty and in some disrepair.

Ari, however sees something completely different. Lost in the mist are human men, women, and children. Ari starts making notes in her notebook for future reference.

She glances up and notices Caper sneaking into the house with Tude following ready to protect him. In the cottage Caper finds a lavishly illuminated tome chronicling a time when the Commonwealth was a wild land of barrow-kings and bigfolk. (from the Heirlooms Of The Estate d10 table)

He can't wait to show Ari the book and rushes out to her. Ari glances at the book but she is more concerned right now with the lost souls in the mist. She describes them to Caper who can't see them.

Ari suggests that Caper finishes the tea and gives it a stir with her silver wand. Caper chugs tea straight out of the cold pot and now Caper sees the people too. Ari asks if Caper has brandy and Caper grins tapping his hiking pack.

Ari thinks the minimal amount will help Caper move the people out of the mist and away from here. Caper says he'll take the minimal amount which is usually one good chug followed by another. Ari says take half the minimal amount and then lead the women and children out because we don't want a lot of dead bodies which is where this could go.

So Caper takes a wee nip and then starts playing his flute and dancing with the children in the mist. When he leads them across the field they follow enchanted by his flute. The women follow the children and the men follow the women and soon Caper has them all heading across the field toward the path with Ari and Tude bringing up the rear.

There are seven kids, five women, and six men that follow them out of the mist. Some of the men are younger, without whiskers yet, but full grown.

Ari now sees from the trail another even bigger cottage across the road that is also unlived in.

The people still have no clue about where they are. Some of them gripe and complain about the people running a village. They all calm down and start to get along after fussing awhile. Caper says the fussing is a good sign that they have returned to normal. Big folk are always fussing.

Ari is determined to make sure that the people she's with go a different direction. She's afraid of danger to them. They could be hurt, killed, or locked up.

Caper wants to examine this bigger cottage on the other side of the path. He can't wait to see if there are more books for Ari stuck up on a shelf somewhere. He still feels the effects of the farseeing tea and he's checking out what he can see from here on the trail.

Fey Enigma
----
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
---
After the eighteen people who had been trapped in the mist recovered their senses Caper and Tude looted the big house across the road and (after rolling another one on the Heirlooms table) he found another book. This looked to be a book of Kings with pictures of Kings surrounded by text. It's very fancy. Caper grabs it and takes it back up the hill to Ari. Tude nuzzles Ari's hand.

Caper shows Ari the Book of Kings and Cyndre, the lady boss of the rescued humans, pops over to look. She says, "Oh, aye! I ken him. Old King Cartyr, he died last year."

Ari and Caper look at each other and Caper says, "King Cartyr is legendary. He died 400 years ago."

Cyndre looks up noticing details in Ari's clothing she hadn't see before. Finely woven cloth with rows of silver buttons. She also notices Caper's well made boots, made by the cobbler at Tobbins Shire. She bows to Ari and says, "Sorry, my lady, but I worked in King Cartyr's Castle and he died just last year.

400 years ago, Cyndre and her party left Tobbins Shire and when they crested a ridge they saw a beautiful field covered in mist with an abandoned farmhouse. When they went to see the farmhouse they walked through the mist and that's the last they remember until Ari, Caper, and Tude led them out of the mist and back up to the road.

Ari and Caper have a short confab and decide that there's nothing for it but to take these people back to the shire.

Caper shouts, "Time to eat", thinking they must be hungry if they haven't dined in 400 years and he takes off down the road back to Tobbins Shire singing a merry tune. With Ari's encouragement they follow and Ari and Tude bring up the rear being careful that no children stray from the path.

When they get to the shire Caper takes them all to the Inn where they have a hearty stew. The rescued people still don't believe 400 years passed but they can tell that things are much different then they were when they left Tobbins Shire, as it seems to them, just this morning.

Caper arranges for rooms and breakfast. The Inn only has five man size rooms so the two families take a room and the others bunk up 2 or 3 to a room.

Caper takes Ari aside and says, "It's not too late. Let's check Muffens Used Clothes and see if he bought that hat."

They enter the shop and Caper makes inquiries. "Yes, indeed,' says Muffens, "the Shirrif did come by and I bought his hat." Caper asks the price and pays 4 silver without bartering which kind of bothered Muffens. He's never know a Tobbins to pay asking price once in his life.

Caper also asks about the pony. "Ah yes," said Muffens, "I directed him to Old Took on the south road not a mile from the shire. He may have sold it there. I tell you he looked a sight on that poor little pony."

Caper, thinking of the Jakobs kids and those magic ribbons decided to check on the pony in the morning. Ari and Caper continued on to Caper's Hobbit Hole where they had a nice repast of crab, mutton, and vegetables and decided to end their adventure for the day.

Caper's Pony
---
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
---
At Inspired Unreality Ari and Caper once again adventured around Tobbins Shire. Ari enlisted the help of Dood a th Wood (pronounced Dude ah th Wude) to divine the spells on the hat and the feather. The feather is a large owl's feather, probably from Wilken Woods and it is enhanced with fey magic to be a magic augmenter. The hat makes the wearer lighter. The hat takes 25% off and with the feather 50%.

They went to see old Took where Caper bought the pony with the magic ribbons and also bought some light tack for the pony.

Caper's Pony

Then back to the Inn to see the people they rescued. They now realize they have been thrust 400 years into their future and are at a loss. Ari suggests they make furniture since antique furniture from their era is valued. Turns out a couple of the men are furniture makers and most of them have carpentry experience. They decide to go into business making genuine reproductions with the slogan, hands from the past.

The Ghost Of The Shire
---
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
Clairen is Liz's PC
---
Adventuring in Tobbins Shire at Eclectic Geekery

Our granddaughter Liz joined Vivian and myself at Eclectic Geekery to play Just Quest. She's playing a dwarf, Clairen, who is friendly and bouncy.

We woke up in Caper's hobbit hole and had a fine breakfast. Roughly-chopped turnips, baked crispy brown and served with a selection of chutneys. Also Beastie-shaped roast veggies that create visions of long-forgotten magic.

Then Caper served a sweet treat, A suspensefully swaying tower of sponge cake, liqueur, orange pieces and custard, topped with a layer of syllabub cream. (Now if I just knew what syllabub is)

Clairen wanted to head to town and make new friends so off we went. On the way we met Pogbert Piper blowing spectacular smoke rings in his garden. His smoke looked like soot from a roaring black hearth.

We all heard the ghost of the shire making smart ass comments about the game. (When we are playing in Tobbins Shire and a non player kibitzes they are providing the voice of the ghost of the shire.)

Not to be outdone Caper asked Pogbert  for a pinch of bacca and he started blowing smokerings resembling long-gone monsters. He blew a huge ring which floated above their heads and then he blew a Gryphon that flew through the center of the ring.

Caper played a merry jig on his flute and every one was tapping their feet or hoeing in time to the music except Clairen who was bouncing up and down.

Then on to town and a visit to Mr. Muffen's second hand store. Clairen bought a yellow headband. Caper bought a black saddle for his pony. Ari looked at a brown saddle for her brown horse streaked with white but she wasn't convinced she needed it. Then back to the hobbit hole to try out the saddle. When they passed Pogbert Piper's garden he was nowhere in sight. Probably inside for elevenses, which made Caper start to think about what they would eat for elevenses when they got back home.

Acorn People
---
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
Clairen is Liz's PC
Edge Bravestone is Anthony's PC
---
Acorn People and Mister MistMeister

Adventuring in Tobbins Shire at Eclectic Geekery on June 18, 2022

On their way back from Mr Muffen's Second Hand Store Ari, Caper, and Clairen met Edge Bravestone, a cautious fighter. Caper said "Well met" and invited him to his hobbit hole for elevenses. They had a floral mix that, when steeped, thickens the air with love and tea infusing aromas from across the Four Marches.

Caper mentioned that he had heard of an interesting tree across the river in Wilken Woods and when everyone said they were up for a hike anyway off they went.

They took a short cut along the riverbank and soon were crossing the bridge and entering Wilken Woods, a magic forest. Ari and Caper had been to the tree before so Caper led the way, a little over a mile on the road and then a slight veer to the north following a barely used woods trail.

Soon they came to a large oak tree with some owls perched in the upper branches and acorns covering the ground. Caper gathered a bunch of acorns in a pile and stirred them with his finger and up popped an acorn man who said, "We are acorns from the sentient oak. When met with intelligent interest we wake up and talk. The sentient oak can talk too but time runs slow for him. We acorns can understand him but other living creatures cannot."

Caper continued talking to the acorn man and Ari, Clairen, and Edge gathered acorns together. Soon they were all talking to acorn men.

After talking about the tree, the owls, and everything (including fairies) Caper's acorn man stepped to the fore. He said, "We need your help. There is nothing we would like more than to lay on the ground and wait to be an oak tree. But acorns lying in the shadow of a sentient oak cannot grow. The owls sometimes help by carrying acorns or acorn men to other parts of Wilken Woods but they never cross the river. We would like to expand our horizons and answer our constant conundrum, which came first, the magic forest or the sentient oak trees?"

Caper said, "I know just the spot.", turning to Ari, "Remember the hill above the mist where we rescued those people from the past?"

Ari agreed that the hill would be more than suitable. Caper said, "We have some unfinished business there too and maybe we can make the misty valley safe with the help of Clairen, Edge, and our new friends, the acorn people.

So each of them carried an acorn man on their shoulder and trekked back to Tobbins Shire and then up the road leading to the misty valley.

When they got to the top of the hill they could see the mist in the valley below and the two ancient houses on either side of the road. The acorn men loved the spot and they jumped onto the ground and ran in different directions looking for a nice place to lie down and wait to be an oak tree.

Caper filled everyone in on the danger of the mist while he started boiling water for tea.

"Ari and I drank this tea before and then we braved the mist and pulled about 20 humans out and guided them to the top of the hill. They wandered into the mist 400 years ago and when we brought them out it was still the same day to them. It wasn't until the next morning that they began to believe they were 400 years in the future."

Everyone wanted to solve the mystery of the mist and dispell the danger.

Ari pulled out a bag of tea and four cups. Caper made the tea and poured it. Ari stirred each cup with the silver wand King Groad had given her in feyland. Caper added a drop of Brandy.

"So drink this down." said Caper, "It's not safe in the mist and we don't want to be waking up 400 years in the future, if we're lucky enough that someone comes to rescue us."

Ari said, "The tea protects against fey magic and when enhanced by the fey magic in the silver wand it is very powerful protection, indeed."

When the party entered the mist it was Edge Bravestone that started a conversation, calling out to the mist believing there was a persona involved.

The mist was soon showing multiple faces and waving hands. Although his conversation was disjoint and punctuated with oooos and ahhhs here's the essence of his story.

"I was a water elemental and one night I took to gaseous form to explore the dry land near the river. I got in a fight with a mage and his magic crossed my fey magic wrong and I got stuck in gaseous form. That's how I became Mister MistMeister."

Mister MistMeister

"Time doesn't mean much to me so I don't know how long ago this happened. Later a party of humans wandered into the mist. They were lost and distressed. I liked them and I didn't want to hurt them so I froze time for them."

"Later on two of you came into the mist and took them off. I don't know why you weren't lost and distressed. I tried to freeze you in time anyway but it didn't work."

"And now here you are back again with two others. I like you and I'd like to keep you but my magic isn't working on you again."

Caper kept an eye on Mister MistMeister while Ari, Clairen, and Edge tried to come up with some ideas to fix things. Disperse the mist? Turn it back into water? What kind of spell could do something to a water elemental?

Ari said, "Ah, but you forget, I am Arimeth, and I am not new to this game." She picked up a D20 brandishing it in front of us and then she made it disappear. It reappeared on the floor and it was a 5.

Checking the Entirely True Tales From Beyond The High Hedge dice table we read.

The Dwarf-King’s royal artisan has a secret technique for brewing molten metal into heavenly spiced mead.

Clairen the friendly bouncy dwarf is still a dwarf and she could read between the lines. Maybe we need to get Mister MistMeister drunk. That seems to solve most problems for dwarves.

That got Caper's attention. He tipped his hat to one of Mister MistMeister's many faces and said, "I believe we're going to help you out in a bit."

Then he led the party out of the mist, to the top of the hill, past the resting acorns, and on towards Tobbins Shire to get a keg of ale.

Mister MistMeister Gets A New Name ... Twice
---
Ari is Vivian's PC
Tude is Ari's pet wildcat and also Vivian's PC
Caper is a Larry's DM PC
Clairen is Liz's PC
Wyleth is Conley's PC
Snurgi Snurgison is Carl's PC
---
Tobbins Shire July 16, 2022
Session summary (with some additions for narrative flow (or jokes))

The party went to town for a keg of ale to get Mister Mistermeister drunk. In town Edge Bravestone got called away and Wyleth, a soldier who was raised as a farmer and Snurgi Snurgison, a dwarf who is a fighter and a poet, joined us. We carried the ale in our pony cart back up the hill towards the valley.

On our way we saw two farmers taking a picnic break from their toil. Wyleth hailed them and asked if we could join them. They said, "Sure." and asked about the ale so Caper poured a round. Clairen was happy to have an impromptu picnic with new friends.

Snurgi was inspired to compose a poem on the spot.

We was walking along and found some farmers
We knews they was safe, they wore no armors
Our friend sat down plop, to eat a potluck
And we was confident, no one would harm her

One of the farmers was an idiot but they were both really nice and we enjoyed their company.

And then off we went to the top of the hill overlooking Mister MistMeister in the valley. Caper quickly brewed some tea that protects against fey magic and after Ari stirred it with her silver wand and Caper added a drop of brandy we all drank the tea.

Then we filled buckets of ale and tankards for ourselves. Mister MistMeister was quite curious about the buckets. Caper called out, "We brought you some ale." and everyone set the buckets down on the ground. Mister MistMeister liked it and he made a face for every bucket and then some smaller faces started trying to steal the ale from our tankards. Caper covered his with his hand but everyone else just chugged their ale down. Snurgi emptied his whole tankard in one quaff with most of it going down his throat but some spilling onto his beard. Mister MistMeister made a dozen little faces to drink the ale from his beard.

After drinking nearly a keg of ale Mister MistMeister was drunk. Pretty soon the mist started thinning revealing a yellow rivulet cascading down the valley towards the river. The party decided to follow him down to the river to see how he was doing.

When they got to the river his face popped up out of the river as yellow as can be. He said, "I used to be Mister MistMeister but now I'm Mr. PissMeister. Clairen suggested that he could try some cranberries. Nobody had any cranberries but Ari had some Panacea Berries which look like cranberries and have general healing properties. She tossed one to Mister PissMeister and he turned pink. Everyone thought it was an improvement. He certainly smelled better. Mister PissMeister said, "I used to be Mister PissMeister but now I'm The Red Headed Rascal." He did a series of swoops and dives all the time remaining careful not to take his gaseous form and become mist again.

He asked if he could do something to repay us. Caper said, "I know time is different for you and you don't think in days and years like we do but when those people wandered into the mist that was 400 years ago for us. Can you show us this valley 400 years in the future?"

The Red Headed Rascal said, "Easy as pi. In fact I can take you there if you want."

Caper demurred, "Oh please no, I just want to look, I'm happy enough in my own century."

The Read Headed Rascal said, "Look." and he looked up the valley. When the party followed his gaze they saw a large circle colored green and yellow and some colors they didn't know. In the circle was the valley, fully populated by sentient oak trees. And when they looked under the trees their was a village of acorn people with houses, roads, and carts pulled by beetles. The sentient oaks did so well growing in the valley that the acorn people lived lives of their own before finding a final resting place where they could lay down and wait to be an oak tree.

And looking up to the top of the hill they saw four giant sentient oaks that must have grown from the acorn people they had carried across the river. They decided to name them the sentinel sentient oaks.

After bidding fare thee well to the Red Headed Rascal the party climbed to the top of the hill and looked around. No more mist. And no more houses either. When Mister MistMeister returned to his liquid form he must have lost all connection to the time when he captured the humans in the mist.

On the way back to town they saw the same portly shirrif wearing a hat with a feather and riding another pony all bedecked in ribbons. Caper talked to him for a while but he told Caper he was the shirrif and he could ride a pony if he wanted and it wasn't any business of his. The shirrif said, "The last pony I had wouldn't carry me after I sold my hat to Muffen. I'm keeping this pony and the hat." After the shirrif passed Ari detected magic and sure enough the hat, the feather, and the ribbons glowed with fey magic. Caper shook his head and said, "Those fairies have been having fun with the shirrif again.

They made it back to town before dark and returned the empty keg to the tavern. They saw some of the people they rescued in the tavern and they decided to join them, have a drink, and fill them in on The Story of Mister MistMeister and his Many Transformations.

---

We played using the dice rolling tables in Hearth & Hillside Home, Being a book of pastoral pleasures for Halflings and Bigfolk alike.

https://weirdandblue.itch.io/hearth-and-hillside-home

During play at the last session dice were rolled against the Idioms For Idiots D20 table for all conversation from Farmer 1. He was the idiot.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/968

Thanks to DM Kier for the Mister PissMeister joke.

Thanks to Eclectic Geekery in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, for providing gaming space.

Ari and Caper have been campaigning together for over 30 years.

---

Illustrations

Gamer+ Photo Gallery
https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/127

Capers Hobbit Hole
by jawajeziorski - Pixabay License
https://pixabay.com/zh/photos/the-land-of-the-hobbits-new-zealand-6314749/

Caper's Pony
from FREE*SVG
https://freesvg.org/cartoon-pony-color-drawing

Dancing Fairies

by August Malmström - public domain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:August_Malmstr%C3%B6m_-_Dancing_Fairies_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Join us for actual play in Tobbins Shire Saturday morning at 11:00. Eclectic Geekery is hosting Inspired Unreality in a hybrid game. Play around the table or play over the internet. We have met Mister MistMeister, the water elemental, who held 20 humans in stasis for 400 years, and we are trying to make sure that doesn't happen again. Or, even worse, next time it could be hobbits.

Eclectic Geekery is my daughters book, hobby, and game store located in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Their relaxed atmosphere is perfect for sitting around a table and enjoying an RPG.

https://eclecticgeekery.com/

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Saturday at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. First Saturday - Fantasy and Science Fiction. Third Saturday - actual play. All other Saturdays - bring your own topic. For more info and an invite link click here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Tobbins Shire is part of the Milyagon locale created by Larry and Vivian. I will be the DM running Just Quest, my own rules light OSR RPG. If you can't make it to Eclectic Geekery join us online.

Last week Vivian and I discussed a variety of topics while I built the Idioms For Idiots D20 dice table. Whenever either of us said an idiom or reminded me of an idiom I would write it down in the text chat. When I finally stopped to count I had 19 of them so I added one more and Hooray!

Idioms For Idiots

 A d20 dice table

1. I bit my tongue
2. a stitch in time saves nine
3. butter side up
4. stupid is as stupid does
5. a rose is a rose
6. I let him have it
7. has the cat got your tongue?
8. don't look a gift horse in the mouth
9. the squeaky wheel gets the grease
10. live and let live
11. if it ain't broke don't fix it
12. it's the singer not the song
13. young and in love
14. let it slide
15. an apple a day keeps the doctor away
16. if you don't play you can't win
17. the cow's in the corn
18. closing the barn door after the horse is out
19. you don't want to know how the sausage is made
20. winners never quit and quitters never win

The idea is when the party is collecting information at the local tavern or at the fair the DM designates one of the NPCs an idiot. He might look all wise and ancient but whenever a PC asks him a question he replies with one of the idioms on the dice table. The DM can scan the table to find an appropriate idiom or just do it the old fashioned way and roll a D20.

It could be a girl too. I'm for Equal Rights! Girls can be idiots too.

What I'm wondering is if the party will get value from these conversations in pursuing their quest. I mean, let's face it, we all know someone like this. Whatever comes up they've got some idiotic saying to add to the conversation.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/968

My grandson, Conley Hunt, is related to geeks and he joined me Wednesday morning Guerilla Livestreaming Craighead Forest Lake, part of my Hairy Larry Guerilla Livestreaming Scenic Northeast Arkansas project. I played piano and Conley played cajon. Some geese sang along. You can see the video here.

https://deltaboogie.net/

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/972

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/index
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

A d20 dice table

1. I bit my tongue
2. a stitch in time saves nine
3. butter side up
4. stupid is as stupid does
5. a rose is a rose
6. I let him have it
7. has the cat got your tongue?
8. don't look a gift horse in the mouth
9. the squeaky wheel gets the grease
10. live and let live
11. if it ain't broke don't fix it
12. it's the singer not the song
13. young and in love
14. let it slide
15. an apple a day keeps the doctor away
16. if you don't play you can't win
17. the cow's in the corn
18. closing the barn door after the horse is out
19. you don't want to know how the sausage is made
20. winners never quit and quitters never win

Saturday morning at 11:00 AM Central we'll have Inspired Unreality open game chat. Everyone is welcome. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more information and a link to Tenkar's Tavern go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week was the first Saturday in July so our topic was Fantasy and Science Fiction. We discussed how difficult it is to write children's fantasy and how difficult High Fantasy RPGs are. And Duca posted some good links about the High Fantasy game Eberron.

Inspired Unreality Summary
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4734

Order of the Emerald Claw
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4735

Eberron Timeline
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4736

The funny thing is that in "Malazan Book of the Fallen" the Empire's assassins are also called The Claw. Are there other Assassin's Guilds called The Claw?

Inquiring minds want to know.

On the 4th of July we had family game day at Eclectic Geekery. Here's the link to their new website.

https://eclecticgeekery.com/

Before that I Guerilla Livestreamed Beatles Park.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4737

Youtube link
https://youtu.be/q2n6n5y1y9M

They say that word of mouth advertising is the best. That's good because it's all we can afford. So ... please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/967

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday, July 2, is the first Saturday of the month so our topic for Inspired Unreality is Fantasy and Science Fiction. Books, stories, movies, tv, games, if it's Fantasy and Science Fiction then it's on topic.

Here's a teaser. I watched the first two episodes of the new "Wheel Of Time" series and I have some issues. Everything goes so fast. The visuals are great but the story is only a sketch. There are 14 books in the "Wheel Of Time" and they are all long and they all have substantial stories to tell across multiple points of view. I don't think the source material fits the tv series format.

You may disagree. That would be great. I have opinions and you have opinions too. We are both free to opinionate at Inspired Unreality.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Saturday at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more information and an invite link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Duca joined us last Saturday on Inspired Unreality. He's been playing a dragon in Eberron, a high fantasy RPG. We've been discussing "Malazan Book of the Fallen" by Steven Erikson a ten book high fantasy series and just how difficult it is to write high fantasy. I imagine that's true for RPGs too.

Duca also mentioned Keith Baker, a game designer and fantasy novel author who worked on Eberron. Here's a link to his blog.

https://keith-baker.com/

Have you done any high fantasy gaming? Turns out that discussing high fantasy games is on topic when we discuss Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Now, Vivian and I are readers. We talk about books. You may enjoy games, television, or movies. Let us know what you like and why you like it? What has your attention right now?

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/965

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tomorrow morning at 11:00 Central. Open game chat on Inspired Unreality. Bring your own topic. Everyone is welcome. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Ureality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkars Tavern on Discord. Here's a link to more info and an invite.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week on Inspired Unreality. Actual play at Eclectic Geekery.

Acorn People and Mister MistMeister from hairylarry's blog

On their way back from Mr Muffin's Second Hand Store Ari, Caper, and Clairen met Edge Bravestone, a cautious fighter. Caper said "Well met" and invited him to his hobbit hole for elevenses. They had a floral mix that, when steeped, thickens the air with love and tea infusing aromas from across the Four Marches.

Caper mentioned that he had heard of an interesting tree across the river in Wilken Woods and when everyone said they were up for a hike anyway off they went.

They took a short cut along the riverbank and soon were crossing the bridge and entering Wilken Woods, a magic forest. Ari and Caper had been to the tree before so Caper led the way, a little over a mile on the road and then a slight veer to the north following a barely used woods trail.

Soon they came to a large oak tree with some owls perched in the upper branches and acorns covering the ground. Caper gathered a bunch of acorns in a pile and stirred them with his finger and up popped an acorn man who said, "We are acorns from the sentient oak. When met with intelligent interest we wake up and talk. The sentient oak can talk too but time runs slow for him. We acorns can understand him but other living creatures cannot."

Caper continued talking to the acorn man and Ari, Clairen, and Edge gathered acorns together. Soon they were all talking to acorn men.

After talking about the tree, the owls, and everything (including fairies) Caper's acorn man stepped to the fore. He said, "We need your help. There is nothing we would like more than to lay on the ground and wait to be an oak tree. But acorns lying in the shadow of a sentient oak cannot grow. The owls sometimes help by carrying acorns or acorn men to other parts of Wilken Woods but they never cross the river. We would like to expand our horizons and answer our constant conundrum, which came first, the magic forest or the sentient oak trees?"

Caper said, "I know just the spot.", turning to Ari, "Remember the hill above the mist where we rescued those people from the past?"

Ari agreed that the hill would be more than suitable. Caper said, "We have some unfinished business there too and maybe we can make the misty valley safe with the help of Clairen, Edge, and our new friends, the acorn people.

So each of them carried an acorn man on their shoulder and trekked back to Tobbins Shire and then up the road leading to the misty valley.

When they got to the top of the hill they could see the mist in the valley below and the two ancient houses on either side of the road. The acorn men loved the spot and they jumped onto the ground and ran in different directions looking for a nice place to lie down and wait to be an oak tree.

Caper filled everyone in on the danger of the mist while he started boiling water for tea.

"Ari and I drank this tea before and then we braved the mist and pulled about 20 humans out and guided them to the top of the hill. They wandered into the mist 400 years ago and when we brought them out it was still the same day to them. It wasn't until the next morning that they began to believe they were 400 years in the future."

Everyone wanted to solve the mystery of the mist and dispell the danger.

Ari pulled out a bag of tea and four cups. Caper made the tea and poured it. Ari stirred each cup with the silver wand King Groad had given her in feyland.

"So drink this down." said Caper, "It's not safe in the mist and we don't want to be waking up 400 years in the future, if someone comes to rescue us."

Ari said, "The tea protects against fey magic and when enhanced by the fey magic in the silver wand it is very powerful protection, indeed."

When the party entered the mist it was Edge Bravestone that started a conversation, calling out to the mist believing there was a persona involved.

The mist was soon showing multiple faces and waving hands. Although his conversation was disjoint and punctuated with oooos and ahhhs here's the essence of his story.

"I was a water elemental and one night I took to gaseous form to explore the dry land near the river. I got in a fight with a mage and his magic crossed my fey magic wrong and I got stuck in gaseous form. That's how I became Mister MistMeister."

"Time doesn't mean much to me so I don't know how long ago this happened. Later a party of humans wandered into the mist. They were lost and distressed. I liked them and I didn't want to hurt them so I froze time for them."

"Later on two of you came into the mist and took them off. I don't know why you weren't lost and distressed. I tried to freeze you in time anyway but it didn't work."

"And now here you are back again with two others. I like you and I'd like to keep you but my magic isn't working on you again."

Caper kept an eye on Mister MistMeister while Ari, Clairen, and Edge tried to come up with some ideas to fix things. Disperse the mist? Turn it back into water? What kind of spell could do something to a water elemental?

Ari said, "Ah, but you forget, I am Arimeth, and I am not new to this game." She picked up a D20 brandishing it in front of us and then she made it disappear. It reappeared on the floor and it was a 5.

Checking the Entirely True Tales From Beyond The High Hedge dice table we read.

The Dwarf-King’s royal artisan has a secret technique for brewing molten metal into heavenly spiced mead.

Clairen the friendly bouncy dwarf is still a dwarf and she could read between the lines. Maybe we need to get Mister MistMeister drunk. That seems to solve most problems for dwarves.

That got Caper's attention. He tipped his hat to one of Mister MistMeister's many faces and said, "I believe we're going to help you out in a bit."

Then he led the party out of the mist, to the top of the hill, past the resting acorns, and on towards Tobbins Shire to get a keg of ale.
---
https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/956

Dice tables from Hearth & Hillside Home
https://weirdandblue.itch.io/hearth-and-hillside-home

And I posted some photos of Wilken Woods. (Taken in our yard.)
https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/40

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/957

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Adventuring in Tobbins Shire at Eclectic Geekery on June 18, 2022

On their way back from Mr Muffin's Second Hand Store Ari, Caper, and Clairen met Edge Bravestone, a cautious fighter. Caper said "Well met" and invited him to his hobbit hole for elevenses. They had a floral mix that, when steeped, thickens the air with love and tea infusing aromas from across the Four Marches.

Caper mentioned that he had heard of an interesting tree across the river in Wilken Woods and when everyone said they were up for a hike anyway off they went.

They took a short cut along the riverbank and soon were crossing the bridge and entering Wilken Woods, a magic forest. Ari and Caper had been to the tree before so Caper led the way, a little over a mile on the road and then a slight veer to the north following a barely used woods trail.

Soon they came to a large oak tree with some owls perched in the upper branches and acorns covering the ground. Caper gathered a bunch of acorns in a pile and stirred them with his finger and up popped an acorn man who said, "We are acorns from the sentient oak. When met with intelligent interest we wake up and talk. The sentient oak can talk too but time runs slow for him. We acorns can understand him but other living creatures cannot."

Caper continued talking to the acorn man and Ari, Clairen, and Edge gathered acorns together. Soon they were all talking to acorn men.

After talking about the tree, the owls, and everything (including fairies) Caper's acorn man stepped to the fore. He said, "We need your help. There is nothing we would like more than to lay on the ground and wait to be an oak tree. But acorns lying in the shadow of a sentient oak cannot grow. The owls sometimes help by carrying acorns or acorn men to other parts of Wilken Woods but they never cross the river. We would like to expand our horizons and answer our constant conundrum, which came first, the magic forest or the sentient oak trees?"

Caper said, "I know just the spot.", turning to Ari, "Remember the hill above the mist where we rescued those people from the past?"

Ari agreed that the hill would be more than suitable. Caper said, "We have some unfinished business there too and maybe we can make the misty valley safe with the help of Clairen, Edge, and our new friends, the acorn people.

So each of them carried an acorn man on their shoulder and trekked back to Tobbins Shire and then up the road leading to the misty valley.

When they got to the top of the hill they could see the mist in the valley below and the two ancient houses on either side of the road. The acorn men loved the spot and they jumped onto the ground and ran in different directions looking for a nice place to lie down and wait to be an oak tree.

Caper filled everyone in on the danger of the mist while he started boiling water for tea.

"Ari and I drank this tea before and then we braved the mist and pulled about 20 humans out and guided them to the top of the hill. They wandered into the mist 400 years ago and when we brought them out it was still the same day to them. It wasn't until the next morning that they began to believe they were 400 years in the future."

Everyone wanted to solve the mystery of the mist and dispell the danger.

Ari pulled out a bag of tea and four cups. Caper made the tea and poured it. Ari stirred each cup with the silver wand King Groad had given her in feyland.

"So drink this down." said Caper, "It's not safe in the mist and we don't want to be waking up 400 years in the future, if someone comes to rescue us."

Ari said, "The tea protects against fey magic and when enhanced by the fey magic in the silver wand it is very powerful protection, indeed."

When the party entered the mist it was Edge Bravestone that started a conversation, calling out to the mist believing there was a persona involved.

The mist was soon showing multiple faces and waving hands. Although his conversation was disjoint and punctuated with oooos and ahhhs here's the essence of his story.

"I was a water elemental and one night I took to gaseous form to explore the dry land near the river. I got in a fight with a mage and his magic crossed my fey magic wrong and I got stuck in gaseous form. That's how I became Mister MistMeister."

"Time doesn't mean much to me so I don't know how long ago this happened. Later a party of humans wandered into the mist. They were lost and distressed. I liked them and I didn't want to hurt them so I froze time for them."

"Later on two of you came into the mist and took them off. I don't know why you weren't lost and distressed. I tried to freeze you in time anyway but it didn't work."

"And now here you are back again with two others. I like you and I'd like to keep you but my magic isn't working on you again."

Caper kept an eye on Mister MistMeister while Ari, Clairen, and Edge tried to come up with some ideas to fix things. Disperse the mist? Turn it back into water? What kind of spell could do something to a water elemental?

Ari said, "Ah, but you forget, I am Arimeth, and I am not new to this game." She picked up a D20 brandishing it in front of us and then she made it disappear. It reappeared on the floor and it was a 5.

Checking the Entirely True Tales From Beyond The High Hedge dice table we read.

The Dwarf-King’s royal artisan has a secret technique for brewing molten metal into heavenly spiced mead.

Clairen the friendly bouncy dwarf is still a dwarf and she could read between the lines. Maybe we need to get Mister MistMeister drunk. That seems to solve most problems for dwarves.

That got Caper's attention. He tipped his hat to one of Mister MistMeister's many faces and said, "I believe we're going to help you out in a bit."

Then he led the party out of the mist, to the top of the hill, past the resting acorns, and on towards Tobbins Shire to get a keg of ale.

---

Dice tables from Hearth & Hillside Home
https://weirdandblue.itch.io/hearth-and-hillside-home

Explore Tobbins Shire on Inspired Unreality open game chat hosted by Eclectic Geekery in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. We will be playing a hybrid game with some of us sitting around a table and others from anywhere in the world meeting in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tankar's Tavern on Discord.

For more information about Inspired Unreality and for a link to Tenkars Tavern go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Tobbins Shire is the home of Caper Tobbins, Ari's sidekick. Caper, Arimeth, and Tude, Ari's wildcat have been adventuring together for over thirty years. If you include The Ghost of Tobbins Shire this will be a three generation RPG game at Eclectic Geekery alone. Come and join us and we'll see how this works.

Last month our granddaughter Liz joined Vivian and myself at Eclectic Geekery to play Just Quest. She's playing a dwarf, Clairen, who is friendly and bouncy.

Clairen wanted to head to town and make new friends so off we went. On the way we met Pogbert Piper blowing spectacular smoke rings in his garden. His smoke looked like soot from a roaring black hearth.

Caper played a merry jig on his flute and every one was tapping their feet or hoeing in time to the music except Clairen who was bouncing up and down.

Then on to town and a visit to Mr. Muffin's second hand store. Clairen bought a yellow headband. Caper bought a black saddle for his pony.

And that ain't all ...

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/929

Eclectic Geekery is a book and hobby store with a focus on sci-fi, fantasy and all things geeky. Here's a link to their Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

And on the music side of my life Vivian and I were joined by Carl and his family for my Guerilla Livestream of the Black Oak, Arkansas, mural in Black Oak Arkansas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyCaMnt39As

And I have a new album out, Hairy Larry Livestreams, available for streaming everywere and soon to be available in CD form at Eclectic Geekery. Listen or download here.

https://archive.org/details/hairylarrylivestreams

Please share.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/950

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday morning join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more information and a link, go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week we discussed Fantasy and Science Fiction. Viv and I started with author recomendations and then went on to discuss the problems with making Fantasy and Science Fiction blockbuster movies and TV series. And then I totally went off on my idea of how to produce a very low budget youtube D&D series. It was great.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4627

Next Saturday we'll be gaming at Eclectic Geekery playing a hybrid game around the table and on Discord. If you're up for a relaxing morning exploring Tobbins Shire with Ari and Caper plus Tude the wildcat and Clairen, the friendly bouncy Dwarf join us. It literally takes less than two minutes to roll up a new character in Just Quest and join the fun. We've decided that any kibitzing heard over the wall is The Ghost Of Tobbins Shire.

More here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4637

And if you're in the area here's a link to Eclectic Geekery.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

Vivian and I have started a new project, Guerilla Livestreaming Scenic Northeast Arkansas. Saturday afternoon we'll be streaming from Black Oak, Arkansas. If you're as old as me that name might ring a bell.

I'll be livestreaming from in front of the High On The Hog mural painted on brick. I've been a fan since their first album came out and I finally got to meet Jim Dandy at the KASU Arkansas Roots Festival. Now I get to play in Black Oak, Arkansas, in front of a mural memorializing the band.

Here's the website for our Guerilla Livestreaming Scenic Northeast Arkansas project. All of our new videos will be posted here.

https://deltaboogie.net/

Please forward this email to your gaming/livestreaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/944

Let me know what you've been doing, gaming or otherwise. Join us at Inspired Unreality, post on Gamer+, or contact me directly. We have so many creative people on Gamer+. I want to know what you're doing.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday, June 4, is the first Saturday of the month so our Inspired Unreality topic is Fantasy and Science Fiction. This is a broad subject including books, movies, tv, and games. Whatever type you like we will be glad to talk about it.

Now Viv and I are old, so we came to Fantasy and Science Fiction reading books and magazines. Some of the authors we read were Isaac Aasimov, Robert Heinlein, Fritz Lieber, Arthur C. Clark, Clifford Simak, and Andre Norton. If none of these names are familiar to you perhaps you need to spend some time with us.

There's a whole new world of the future out there in the past and there's not much new under the sun that wasn't predicted by some author 50 years ago.

I still read a lot of these golden age authors and none of them age as well as Jack Vance. In my opinion. Maybe you have an opinion too. Bring it with you to Inspired Unreality, open game chat, where, this week, all Fantasy and Science Fiction is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Sarah and Megan have got the ball rolling at Eclectic Geekery with multiple events every weekend. They say "Join us for Dungeons & Dragons Sundays at 1 p.m." Sounds like a plan to me.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4622

In two weeks we'll be adventuring in Tobbins Shire at Eclectic Geekery on Inspired Unreality. This will be a hybrid game with some players on Discord and some players sitting around a table. I'm always up for a challenge.

Everyone is welcome at Inspired Unreality. Come tomorrow, come to adventure in Tobbins Shire, come any Saturday at 11:00 AM Central. It's a blast.

And now, veering off topic, I've got a new project, Guerilla Livestreaming from scenic Northeast Arkansas. The idea is we take a short trip for a picnic and some chill jazz piano with plenty of nature in the background. Here's my Twitch link.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

And my Youtube link.

https://www.youtube.com/hairylarryland

Do me a favor and click on the Youtube link and subscribe. I have a goal of reaching 1000 subscribers this year and I need your help.

Please forward this email to your gaming and livestreaming friends. Share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/937

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@gmail.com

Join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat, Saturday at 11:00 AM Central. This week it's bring your own topic. We'll talk about whatever topic you bring, as long as it's gaming. Everyone is welcome.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week is the first Saturday in June so our topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Last week we were adventuring in Tobbins Shire around a table at Eclectic Geekery.

Our granddaughter Liz joined Vivian and myself to play Just Quest. She's playing a dwarf, Clairen, who is friendly and bouncy.

We woke up in Caper's hobbit hole and had a fine breakfast. Roughly-chopped turnips, baked crispy brown and served with a selection of chutneys. Also Beastie-shaped roast veggies that create visions of long-forgotten magic.

Then Caper served a sweet treat, A suspensefully swaying tower of sponge cake, liqueur, orange pieces and custard, topped with a layer of syllabub cream. (Now if I just knew what syllabub is)

Clairen wanted to head to town and make new friends so off we went. On the way we met Pogbert Piper blowing spectacular smoke rings in his garden. His smoke looked like soot from a roaring black hearth.

We all heard the ghost of the shire making smart ass comments about the game. (When we are playing in Tobbins Shire and a non player kibitzes they are providing the voice of the ghost of the shire.)

Not to be outdone Caper asked Pogbert for a pinch of bacca and he started blowing smokerings resembling long-gone monsters. He blew a huge ring which floated above their heads and then he blew a Gryphon that flew through the center of the ring.

Caper played a merry jig on his flute and every one was tapping their feet or hoeing in time to the music except Clairen who was bouncing up and down.

Then on to town and a visit to Mr. Muffin's second hand store. Clairen bought a yellow headband. Caper bought a black saddle for his pony. Ari looked at a brown saddle for her brown horse streaked with white but she wasn't convinced she needed it. Then back to the hobbit hole to try out the saddle. When they passed Pogbert  Piper's garden he was nowhere in sight. Probably inside for elevenses, which made Caper start to think about what they would eat for elevenses when they got back home.
---
We played using the dice rolling tables in Hearth & Hillside Home, Being a book of pastoral pleasures for Halflings and Bigfolk alike.

I posted the Just Quest character sheets to Gamer+.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4565

I met someone on Mastodon who works at Calisphere, a library resource. I searched around and found some public domain posters.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4567

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/930

Thanks
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Our granddaughter Liz joined Vivian and myself at Eclectic Geekery to play Just Quest. She's playing a dwarf, Clairen, who is friendly and bouncy.

We woke up in Caper's hobbit hole and had a fine breakfast. Roughly-chopped turnips, baked crispy brown and served with a selection of chutneys. Also Beastie-shaped roast veggies that create visions of long-forgotten magic.

Then Caper served a sweet treat, A suspensefully swaying tower of sponge cake, liqueur, orange pieces and custard, topped with a layer of syllabub cream. (Now if I just knew what syllabub is)

Clairen wanted to head to town and make new friends so off we went. On the way we met Pogbert Piper blowing spectacular smoke rings in his garden. His smoke looked like soot from a roaring black hearth.

We all heard the ghost of the shire making smart ass comments about the game. (When we are playing in Tobbins Shire and a non player kibitzes they are providing the voice of the ghost of the shire.)

Not to be outdone Caper asked Pogbert  for a pinch of bacca and he started blowing smokerings resembling long-gone monsters. He blew a huge ring which floated above their heads and then he blew a Gryphon that flew through the center of the ring.

Caper played a merry jig on his flute and every one was tapping their feet or hoeing in time to the music except Clairen who was bouncing up and down.

Then on to town and a visit to Mr. Muffin's second hand store. Clairen bought a yellow headband. Caper bought a black saddle for his pony. Ari looked at a brown saddle for her brown horse streaked with white but she wasn't convinced she needed it. Then back to the hobbit hole to try out the saddle. When they passed Pogbert  Piper's garden he was nowhere in sight. Probably inside for elevenses, which made Caper start to think about what they would eat for elevenses when they got back home.

---

We played using the dice rolling tables in Hearth & Hilside Home, Being a book of pastoral pleasures for Halflings and Bigfolk alike.

Inspired Unreality! Saturday, May 20. Live from Eclectic Geekery in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Adventure with us in Tobbins Shire. Join Ari and Caper for breakfast and then we'll see where that leads. We'll explore the shire or explore the woods. Maybe even find a cave. It's all up to the players.

Cast of characters:

Arimeth (Ari) - A human healing witch who has been working with the Milyagon witch brewing teas.

Tude - Ari's wildcat. A pet, not a familiar, Tude comes to Ari's waist and is a formidable defender. Tude only speaks cat but is very intelligent, possibly more intelligent than most humans.

Caper Tobbins - Ari's sidekick, a halfling bard and the DM PC.

Insert your character here. It literally takes 2 minutes to create a character in Just Quest. Honestly, the most time consuming part is making up the PC's name.

Get your character sheet here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/124

We are going to try a hybrid game, around the table and on the internet. If you can't make it to Eclectic Geekery join us on Inspired Unreality.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info in the right sidebar here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Here's a link to the Just Quest rules minizine.

https://www.minizines.cc/flat/?x=entry:entry200105-065552

Here's a link to the Gamer+ Group, Tales Of Milyagon, including some session summaries from recent games.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/groups/4

And one more Milyagon link, "Yon Rogar’s Hat" a short story I wrote about Wilken Woods, the magic forest that lies between Milyagon and Tobbins Shire.

https://sffshortstories.com/?x=entry:entry190818-150004

Enjoy!

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/918

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Ok, the big weekend has arrived. It's the Grand Opening at Eclectic Geekery with games and events every day. It's like a gaming convention in a book store. If you like books and games you should go.

More info including a video and a poster here.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

There will be RPG games; D&D 5e, Chronicles of Ember, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and All Outta Bubblegum; and a Miniature Paint and Take. Special thanks to Alan Wortman, Kier Heyl, Will Hose, and Liz Brown for running events!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Inspired Unreality open game chat will continue as usual. This week is bring your own topic so if you can't make it to Eclectic Geekery on Saturday at least you can join us chatting about games online.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week on Inspired Unreality we will have Actual Play live from Eclectic Geekery. I will be running my game, Just Quest, a rules light system with an OSR feel and we will be adventuring in Tobbins Shire. Everyone is welcome and if you can't sit around a table with us you can play online.

Thanks to ZDL for sending an error report. By the time I checked on it Gamer+ was running fine again. I am still committed to upgrading Gamer+ to better software and running it on my own server. That's just the kind of project I love and I'm looking forward to working on it this summer. The old Gamer+ will remain with all the content we love so much. It will become a static history of the first years on Gamer+ without accepting new posts or gamers.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/ZDL

On a personal note I am planning on recording with my band, Bebop Beatniks, Monday night. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to that.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/915

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

May 7 is the first Saturday in May so our topic for Inspired Unreality is Fantasy and Science Fiction. Whatever your interest; books, movies, games; come chat with us.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 AM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last Saturday we chatted from the RPG room at Eclectic Geekery and we enjoyed that so much we decided to add it as a monthly event. We will be playing Just Quest in Tobbin's Shire, on the other side of Wilken Woods from Milyagon. I've been using the Hearth & Hillside Home dice tables for some low combat, explore the shire gaming and it's been great fun.

Free Hearth & Hillside Home dice table pdf
https://weirdandblue.itch.io/hearth-and-hillside-home

Tales Of Milyagon
https://archive.gamerplus.org/groups/4

Just Quest is a rules light OSR style game and Milyagon is our environs. We're going to try a hybrid game with some players sitting around the table and others on Discord. We'll see how that works. Sound exciting? Well that's in two weeks.

Sunday is Mother's day and the family is coming to visit. In case your forgot this is your reminder from Gamer+.

And next weekend is the Eclectic Geekery grand opening. Here's their facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

If you're in Northeast Arkansas be sure to go. And then come the following Saturday to to play Just Quest in Tobbins Shire.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends. And share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/913

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat. Saturday at 11:00 am central. We will be attempting to chat from Eclectic Geekery, Sarah's and Megan's bookstore. Yep! Going to visit our daughters. In their bookstore.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Everyone is welcome. For more info and a link go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week will be the first Saturday in June so our topic will be fantasy and science fiction. Books, TV, Movies, Games, all on topic. It's a broad topic but we'll hone in on your interests. I've been reading "Malazan Book of the Fallen" by Steven Erikson. And it looks like I'll be reading it for quite a while.

https://steven-erikson.org/malazan-book-of-the-fallen/

Last week we answered the important question, Do Hobbits Drink Hot Chocolate?

After several discouraging searches concluding that Middle Earth has no chocolate I finally found the result I was looking for.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4548

I mean after all how could the hobbit mommys get all their little hobbits home for elevenses without serving a nice mug of chocolate?

In case you've been noticing twitter in the news lately that mastodon link below is a twitter alternative.

I hope you've enjoyed the Gamer+ News. Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/912

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us on Inspired Unreality open game chat Saturday mornings at 11:00 AM Central. This Saturday is bring your own topic. Everyone is welcome and all gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. There's more info here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week Alan and I perused a few of the spell books he generated with his bash script. I added three of them to Gamer+.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4542

Follow Me And Die has a new blog post on Random Research in games.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4545

Here's a super short I wrote in 2018.

AI Autocomplete
by Larry Heyl CC-BY

In the future everyone will have AI Autocomplete, first for writing, then for talking. The AI will be so good that it soon starts guessing right 100% of the time. People select the Just Say It For Me option since their AI Autocomplete always guesses right.

This is the future of humanity, packhorses for AI Autocompletes talking to each other.

Or is it already happening now?

---

See the illustration here.

https://sffshortstories.com/?x=entry:entry180208-201254

If you have any short fiction you would like to feature get in touch!

Weather permitting I will be livestreaming chill jazz piano from the Twitch Porch with Bebop Beatniks on Monday at 5:00 pm Central.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/911

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tomorrow! Saturday at 11:00 AM Central. Inspired Unreality open game chat. This Saturday is bring your own topic. Or we could roll one up. Or Actual Play.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tankar's Tavern on Discord. More info here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Everyone is welcome. All gaming is on topic. We look forward to chatting with you.

Last week Duca schooled me in the arts of EU4. He's into historical role playing too. A history buff playing down through the centuries.

Lately I've been posting some of my writing and session summaries so I thought I would feature another Gamer+ gamer today.

Call To March
Follow Me And Die

I had this idea for a short story. I started it about an hour before the Wednesday night game I play in. This is a first draft with minimal editing for the most grievous typos. I’m curious what you think of it.

The youth, slim of build and lean, not yet muscled from long marchings with pack and armor looked to the grizzled veteran. Young Jaran idolized the aged veteran, survivor of many battles, who bore a white scar over his sightless left eye.

Hurry lads, grab your packs and cinch them well before the call to march ends!

How far today, Goram? came the call in unison from the youthful members of the company.

Continue reading

https://followmeanddie.com/2022/04/13/call-to-march/

And here's the Follow Me And Die Gamer+ page.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/FollowMeAndDie

Please forward this email and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/909

We are looking forward to getting together with our family.

Happy Easter,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join Ari and Caper adventuring around Tobbins Shire. Will the humans they saved from Mr. Mistmeister start building brand new antique furniture? Will Ari and Caper meet Mr. Mistmeister and somehow abate the danger? I mean being transported 400 years into the future isn't nice. And if Ari and Caper hadn't found them and rescued them how long would they have been trapped in the mist?

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. This week it's actual play in and around Tobbins Shire, home of river halflings and even some humans!

As we do on the first Saturday of every month we discussed fantasy and science fiction last week. We are also good with bring your own topic. As long as its games.

If you are interested in hosting a game on Inspired Unreality let me know. I'd love to play in one of your games.

As Spring weather arrives we are at a wane in the ebb and tide of covid so we are looking forward to playing music in the park, playing games at Eclectic Geekery, and spending time with our family.

What are your plans? Let us know.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/907

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

My daughters, Sarah and Megan, have opened the Eclectic Geekery bookstore in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and last weekend we visited with them and then I played a couple of sets of chill jazz piano at Beatles Park.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

I livestreamed the show using only battery power and my phone hotspot so this should work anywhere the phone has good signal. I made an audio and video playlist and I have been uploading the best songs to Youtube.

Audio playlist
https://archive.org/details/hl2022-03-27

Video Playlist
https://archive.org/details/hl2022-03-27.video

Sunbathing In "Low Earth Orbit"
https://youtu.be/mfRIxCOc3Xw

Twitch - please follow
https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Youtube - please follow
https://www.youtube.com/hairylarry

Also, Saturday morning at 11:00 Central, we will be in the Inspired Unreality open game chat in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. This week our topic is Fantasy and Science Fiction. There's more info and a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Please forward this email to your music loving friends and share this link.

https://hairylarry.rocks/writes/permalink.php?fname=Delta_Boogie_Newsletter_-_April_2022_-_Chill_Jazz_Piano_at_Beatles_Park.txt

Thanks,
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat is Saturday at 11:00 AM Central. This is the first Saturday of the month so our topic is Fantasy and Science Fiction. This is a broad topic including literature, movies, television, and games. Everyone is welcome. All Fantasy and Science Fiction is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Saturday in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's there's a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

We had a couple of days downtime on our main page again. This time I was able to figure out the problem and repair it. Thanks to FollowMeAndDie for helping me solve this issue.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/FollowMeAndDie

Last weekend I visited Eclectic Geekery, Sarah's and Megan's bookstore, and I played chill jazz piano at Beatles Park.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Sarah

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Megantopia

I livestreamed over twitch using my phone hotspot. The entire rig, piano, pa, phone, and streaming equipment runs on batteries. So I can go anywhere where my phone gets good signal and livestream without an extension cord.

Way cool.

Gamer+ post with photo (Thanks Carl).
https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4526

HairyLarryLand Twitch Stream (please follow)
https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Sunbathing In "Low Earth Orbit" on Youtube (please follow)
https://youtu.be/mfRIxCOc3Xw

I don't want to forget about family game last Saturday. My son Carl was DM playing Castles and Crusades. Around the table was my grandson Conner playing a thief, my son Kier playing a fighter, I was a dwarven cleric, my Foster grandson, Simon, played a wizard, and my Foster grandnephew, Luke, played a wizard. Game highlights are at this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4524

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/905

Thanks,
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

No Inspired Unreality this Saturday. We have family coming in and we will be busy visiting and gaming. We'll be back next week on April 2nd and our first Saturday topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Last week at Inspired Unreality Ari and Caper once again adventured around Tobbins Shire. Ari enlisted the help of Dood a th Wood (pronounced Dude ah thah Wude) to divine the spells on the hat and the feather. The feather is a large owl's feather, probably from Wilkin Woods and it is enhanced with fey magic to be a magic augmenter. The hat makes the wearer lighter. The hat takes 25% off and with the feather 50%.

They went to see old Took where Caper bought the pony with ribbons and also bought some light tack for the pony.

Then back to the Inn to see the people they rescued. They now realize they have been thrust 400 years into their future and are at a loss. Ari suggests they make furniture since antique furniture from their era is valued.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4521

So Saturday, for us, it's family game and visiting my Foster family. Then Sunday, off to Walnut Ridge to see Sarah and Megan's new book store, Eclectic Geekery, and to play a couple of short sets at Beatles Park, right around the corner on Abbey Road. I say short because it's supposed to be chilly.

I am really looking forward to warmer spring weather so I can enjoy playing music outside with my friends.

Please let me know what you've been doing and what you have planned for this spring. Send me an email or message or post on Gamer+.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday morning at 11:00 Central - Inspired Unreality open game chat - Bring your own topic - All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been there's a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Thanks to Ducatislo for joining Alan, Vivian, and myself last Saturday. Ducatislo is from Slovenia and he plays a low fantasy historical RPG using Low Fantasy Gaming Deluxe Edition as the core rules for his game. Really sounds interesting.

He shared this link to a Youtube review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhNcgrCPAJc

Low Fantasy Gaming Deluxe Edition is from Pickpocket Press and here's the DriveThruRPG link.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265388/Low-Fantasy-Gaming-Deluxe-Edition

Next week we will not have Inspired Unreality because we have family coming in and Vivian and I are going to be busy visiting and possibly playing in a family game.

And on next Sunday we'll be going to Walnut Ridge to visit with our family, see the new Eclectic Geekery book store, and play chill jazz piano at Beatles Park.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore/

https://www.beatlesattheridge.com/attractions/beatles-park/

I'm really looking forward to that. Let me know what your plans are now that Sping has sprung and Omicron is waning. And join us Saturday morning for Inspired Unreality.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/903

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us Saturday morning at 11:00 Central for Inspired Unreality open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. We went to Tobbins Shire last night and we might go again. Or we can talk about your projects and your games.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you need a link, go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

From last weeks Inspired Unreality discussion about Fantasy and Science Fiction.

It seems that horses are the most common animal in fantasy while science fiction authors prefer cats. And also, of course, there be dragons, not just in fantasy but in science fiction as well.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4495

Check out this fantastic Year Of The Tiger art by Kim Herbst.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4497

I filled in a few blanks on the now named Tobbins Shire.

In Tobbins Shire there are Tobbins and Mubbins and Muffens plus an occasional Baggins or Took. It is a trading Shire, on the river, with docks, warehouses, and stores. On one street there are big houses for biguns whose kids like swimming in the river off the docks. Some of the Tobbins, Mubbins, and Muffins join them but you won't catch a Baggins or a Took in the water.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4513

And Ari and Caper rescued the people only to find a big bad wrapped in a fey enigma.

Caper shows Ari the Book of Kings and Cyndre, the lady boss of the rescued humans, pops over to look. She says, "Oh, aye! I ken him. Old King Cartyr, he died last year."

Ari and Caper look at each other and Caper says, "King Cartyr is legendary. He died 400 years ago."

Cyndre looks up noticing details in Ari's clothing she hadn't see before. Finely woven cloth with rows of silver buttons. She also notices Caper's well fitted boots, made by the cobbler at Tobbins Shire. She bows to Ari and says, "Sorry, my lady, but I worked in King Cartyr's Castle and he died just last year.

400 years ago, Cyndre and her party left Tobbins Shire and when they crested a ridge they saw a beautiful field covered in mist with an abandoned farmhouse. When they went to see the farmhouse they walked through the mist and that's the last they remember until Ari, Caper, and Tude led them out of the mist and back up to the road.

Ari and Caper have a short confab and decide that there's nothing for it but to take these people back to the shire.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/900

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/901

Stay in touch and Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

After the seventeen people who had been trapped in the mist recovered their senses Caper and Tude looted the big house across the road and (after rolling another one on the Heirlooms table) he found another book. This looked to be a book of Kings with pictures of Kings surrounded by text. It's very fancy. Caper grabs it and takes it back up the hill to Ari. Tude nuzzles Ari's hand.

Caper shows Ari the Book of Kings and Cyndre, the lady boss of the rescued humans, pops over to look. She says, "Oh, aye! I ken him. Old King Cartyr, he died last year."

Ari and Caper look at each other and Caper says, "King Cartyr is legendary. He died 400 years ago."

Cyndri looks up noticing details in Ari's clothing she hadn't see before. Finely woven cloth with rows of silver buttons. She also notices Caper's well made boots, made by the cobbler at Tobbins Shire. She bows to Ari and says, "Sorry, my lady, but I worked in King Cartyr's Castle and he died just last year.

400 years ago, Cyndre and her party left Tobbins Shire and when they crested a ridge they saw a beautiful field covered in mist with an abandoned farmhouse. When they went to see the farmhouse they walked through the mist and that's the last they remember until Ari, Caper, and Tude led them out of the mist and back up to the road.

Ari and Caper have a short confab and decide that there's nothing for it but to take these people back to the shire.

Caper shouts, "Time to eat", thinking they must be hungry if they haven't dined in 400 years and he takes off down the road back to Tobbins Shire singing a merry tune. With Ari's encouragement they follow and Ari and Tude bring up the rear being careful that no children stray from the path.

When they get to the shire Caper takes them all to the Inn where they have a hearty stew. The rescued people still don't believe 400 years passed but they can tell that things are much different then they were when they left Tobbins Shire on what seems to them, just this morning.

Caper arranges for rooms and breakfast. The Inn only has five man size rooms so the two families take a room and the others bunk up 2 or 3 to a room.

Caper takes Ari aside and says, "It's not too late. Let's check Muffins Used Clothes and see if he bought that hat."

They enter the shop and Caper makes inquiries. "Yes, indeed,' says Muffins, "the Sherrif did come buy and I bought his hat." Caper asks the price and pays 4 silver without bartering which kind of bothered Muffins. He's never know a Tobbins to pay asking price once in his life.

Caper also asks about the pony. "Ah yes," said Muffins, "I directed him to Old Took on the south road not a mile from the shire. He may have sold it there. I tell you he looked a sight on that poor little pony."

Caper, thnking of the Jakobs kids and those magic ribbons decided to check on the pony in the morning. Ari and Caper continued on to Caper's Hobbit Hole where they had a nice repast of crab, mutton, and vegetables and decided to end their adventure for the day.

Inspired Unreality open game chat will commence at 11:00 AM Central Saturday morning. March 5 is the first Saturday in March so our topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. Books, short stories, movies, series, and games are all on topic. If you have written an SF or Fantasy game come and discuss it with us. If you write or are an avid reader let us know what you've been enjoying.

I just started Gardens of the Moon, the first of ten novels in Canadian author Steven Erikson's high fantasy series the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm barely into it but I can say wizardry abounds.

Also of interest is the "The Rings of Power", a new Middle Earth fantasy that everyone seems to have an opinion about. Do you? What's your opinion?

And I don't want to skip over "The Wheel Of Time". I've read the books but remain in the dark about the series.

So, plenty to talk about on our Fantasy and Science Fiction Inspired Unreality open game chat.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been there already we have a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

And now, looking forward to next week when we may be adventuring in Milyagon, here's some game prep.

Mr. MistMeister

Ari and Caper run across Mr. MistMeister, a dangerous water elemental, on a hike outside of Caper's Shire. Before he was Mr. MistMeister he was a water sprite. One day when he was flying a potion maker, greatly afraid, threw a potion of gaseous form on the sprite. The combination of magicks locked the elemental into it's gaseous form and Mr. MistMeister was born.

He used to enjoy coralling loads of fish into fishermen's nets so they became so heavily laden that they would break or even capsize the fishing boat. In his mist form he has been corraling people by showing them abandoned houses from the past and luring them into his misty form.

He is not evil. He just does what he does because he doesn't know what else to do. He could be convinced to take up another avocation but he can only be destroyed with very high level magic that counters both the potion and fey magic at the same time.

Pictured is Dancing Fairies painted in 1866 by the Swedish painter August Malmström. Unlike the faires pictured Mr. MistMeister cannot return to the water but is locked above ground as a mist.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/view/797/latest

We are always interested in hearing about your games. Send an email, join us on Inspired Unreality, or, best yet, post to Gamer+.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/895

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Hairy Larry will be playing chill jazz piano from the twitch porch on his twitch livestream today, Tuesday, March 1, at 2:00 PM Central. If you want to watch here's the link.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Please follow and chat to boost my stats.

If the weather holds I will also be on the twitch porch Thursday. I am exercising my rig trying to get everything ready to play at the Craighead Forest Bandshell in Jonesboro and Beatles Park in Walnut Ridge this Spring.

My twitch schedule is Tu-Th-Su at 2:00 PM Central. When the weather is bad I play inside from the HairyLarryLand Twitch Studio. When weather permits I'll be outside. When I play a gig on the weekend that will be instead of Sunday at 2:00, not in addition to Sunday at 2:00. I also do video and audio post production on my livestreams. Here's a couple of links where you can view or listen.

https://www.youtube.com/hairylarry

https://kgpl.org/

My daughters, Sarah and Megan, have opened a bookstore, Eclectic Geekery, in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Those of you who remember Blues Fest will remember Megan, she was our photographer and she also sang with Hairy Larry and The Flying Hungarians. They are both active in the NEA Gamers Guild and NEA Game Fest. Besides books they will also sell games and geek miscellany. The shop looks great. Here's their facebook page where you can see some photos.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore

If you're in the area you will want to give them a visit. Right now it's weekend hours only. Keep up to date on their facebook page.

And if you're wondering when I'll be playing at the bandshell or Beatles Park you are on the right list. These gigs will be short notice because I have to schedule around the weather. I will send notifications to this email list so I have gone from a monthly to a monthly plus gig announcements.

Vivian and I also host Inspired Unreality, open game chat Saturday mornings at
11:00 Central. Here's a link with more info.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

So keep an eye open and stay tuned for more chill jazz piano news. Let me know what you've been doing whether it's music, games, or books. I'm eclectic too.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality! Saturday at 11:00 AM Central. Milyagon Adventures. Or whatever you want to chat about.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Saturday morning in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tankar's Tavern before there's a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

This week is bring your own topic. Next week is March 4, the first Saturday, and the topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. Which segues right into.

Eclectic Geekery ready for business.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4473

Check out the photos on their Facebook. Really looks great.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4475

Another thing we do at Inspired Unreality is some non-combat game play in the area surrounding Milyagon.

They continue along the trail and coming to the top of a ridge they see mist filling a field that opens up before them, evening light glinting off the dewy roof of a distant cottage. (from Scenery On Your Long Treks d12 table)

They walk through the field towards the cottage and Ari, feeling like something might be wrong here recommends caution. Tude's fur ruffles up on the back of his neck, a sure sign of danger.

Caper suggests they drink some farseeing tea so they can see through the windows from a safe distance. He quickly gathers twigs and builds a fire boiling water in the teapot from his hiking pack. Ari sprinkles in some of the tea and Caper tends the pot while Ari looks around, wondering...

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/889

And, finally, here's a bit of eye candy by an artist I found on the Gamer+ Tumblr.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4476

That's right. Cat pics on Gamer+. Of course, it's a Cabbat.

And here's that tumblr link.

https://gamerplusdotorg.tumblr.com/

They say that word of mouth advertising is the best which is a good thing because that's all we can afford anyway. Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/890

Thanks,
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Last week the Shirrif was plodding on to town and Ari cast detect magic on him. All the ribbons on his pony as well as his hat and the feathers in his hat glowed with fey magic. Caper thought, "Interesting" and he also thought the Shirrif's stout little pony might make a good gift for the Jenkins kids.

Ari explains aura colors to Caper. Red means blood, white means blind or a child, no aura means the human doesn't care about colors. Ari said the Shirrif had no aura which didn't surpise her.

They continue along the trail and coming to the top of a ridge they see mist filling a field that opens up before them, evening light glinting off the dewy roof of a distant cottage. (from Scenery On Your Long Treks d12 table)

They walk through the field towards the cottage and Ari, feeling like something might be wrong here recommends caution. Tude's fur ruffles up on the back of his neck, a sure sign of danger.

Caper suggests they drink some farseeing tea so they can see through the windows from a safe distance. He quickly gathers twigs and builds a fire boiling water in the teapot from his hiking pack. Ari sprinkles in some of the tea and Caper tends the pot while Ari looks around, wondering.

Caper pours two small cups and Ari without thinking stirs her tea with the silver wand from the fairy, King Groad, that enhances teas and potions. After putting out his fire Caper is quickly running about exploring the house through the windows and open door from a distance of about 100 feet. He can tell the house is empty and in some disrepair.

Ari, however sees something completely different. Lost in the mist are human men, women, and children. Ari starts making notes in her notebook for future reference.

She glances up and notices Caper sneaking into the house with Tude following ready to protect him. In the cottage Caper finds a lavishly illuminated tome chronicling a time when the Commonwealth was a wild land of barrow-kings and bigfolk. (from the Heirlooms Of The Estate d10 table)

He can't wait to show Ari the book and rushes out to her. Ari glances at the book but she is more concerned right now with the lost souls in the mist. She describes them to Caper who can't see them.

Ari suggests that Caper finishes the tea and gives it a stir with her silver wand. Caper chugs tea straight out of the cold pot and now Caper sees the people too. Ari asks if Caper has brandy and Caper grins tapping his hiking pack.

Ari thinks the minimal amount will help Caper move the people out of the mist and away from here. Caper says he'll take the minimal amount which is usually one good chug followed by another. Ari says take half the minimal amount and then lead the women and children out because we don't want a lot of dead bodies which is where this could go.

So Caper takes a wee nip and then starts playing his flute and dancing with the children in the mist. When he leads them across the field they follow enchanted by his flute. The women follow the children and the men follow the women and soon Caper has them all heading across the field toward the path with Ari and Tude bringing up the rear.

There are seven kids, five women, and six men that follow them out of the mist. Some of the men are younger, without whiskers yet, but full grown.

Ari now sees from the trail another even bigger cottage that is also unlived in.

The people still have no clue about where they are. Some of them gripe and complain about the people running a village. They all calm down and start to get along after fussing awhile. Caper says the fussing is a good sign that they have returned to normal. Big folk are always fussing.

Ari is determined to make sure that the people she's with go a different direction. She's afraid of danger to them. They could be hurt, killed, or locked up.

Caper wants to examine this bigger cottage that appeared on the other side of the path. He can't wait to see if there are more books for Ari stuck up on a shelf somewhere. He still feels the effects of the farseeing tea and he's checking out what he can see from here on the trail.

Join us on Inspired Unreality tomorrow morning at 11:00 Central. Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been to Tenkar's there's a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

This week is Bring Your Own Topic. All gaming is on topic. Have you had a few ideas rolling around in the back of your head? Feel free to join us and talk about them. Board games, card games, RPGs. They're all on topic.

And as for last week! Did you know Milyagon was near a Shire? If you can make it safely across Wilken Woods and cross the river there be Hobbits.

We used Shire friendly dice tables found in the Hearth & Hillside Home.pdf, a name your own price download.

https://weirdandblue.itch.io/hearth-and-hillside-home

First we rolled up elevenses from the Sweet Treats table. Caper rolled Tart rhubarb pie with clotted cream and an extra flavour that everybody either loves or hates and Ari rolled Sticky honeycomb fresh from the tallest oak this side of Woolshod Hill which Caper had recently rescued from the bees.

As a good hobbit would, Caper suggested they follow up on elevenses with Breakfast for Dinner. Caper rolled Spicy sausages with flavours from the distant empire of Man and Ari followed up with a still-twitching boiled crab that always goes for the nose. So sausages and crabs it was after Caper detwitched the crab with a single blow.

Unable to eat any more Caper suggests a walk through the woods to enjoy the sun. Before they get out of town they meet weary halfling travellers trekking into town wearing the scandalous fashions of a distant March. In fact their garb is brightly colored and entirely inappropriate for the shire. They said some fairies had played a trick on them changing their sensible clothes for this rubbish.

Ari escorted them into a second hand clothes shop where Mr. Muffin, the owner, assured them all he could arrange an exchange for more suitable attire knowing that the brightly colored clothes would sell well when caravans of men and women passed through town. No accounting for the tastes of men. Brightly colored scarves just assure that you'll be seen in the woods.

After walking a short way out of town Ari and Caper met a well-groomed pony with courtly ribbons, plodding under the weight of a pompous Shirrif and his tall feathered hat.

The Shirrif was complaining about the fairies who he said, "Tied the ribbons to my pony and gave me this stupid hat."

Caper said, "Mr. Muffin will trade that hat for a better one and he probably knows where you could trade the pony for a sturdier horse."

They talked on for a while, as one does well met in the woods, and then Ari and Caper continued their hike while the Shirrif plodded on to town. As he left, Ari cast detect magic and all the ribbons as well as the hat and the feathers glowed with fey magic.

Maybe we'll find out more on Inspired Unreality tomorrow. Or maybe you have something to talk about or a game you'd like to play. Or both? Could be.

Please forward this email to your game playing friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/887

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us at Inspired Unreality open game chat held every Saturday morning at 11:00 AM Central. This week it's bring your own topic, all gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been to Tenkar's we have a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week Alan joined us and we discussed how RPGs follow trends in fantasy and science fiction literature. It turns out that Alan, like Vivian and myself, is a big Roger Zelazny fan. And Zelazny has had his influence in the gaming world.

And it's not just about fantasy and science fiction books. Many gaming trends follow major media franchises. Join us Saturday morning to continue this discussion or, as always, bring your own topic.

Work continues on Eclectic Geekery, a book store and gaming place in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, where my daughters are bringing both SF and fantasy books and games to Northeast Arkansas. I put up a photo gallery and I have to say I love the ambience especially the exposed brick. Go here to see.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/117

I can't wait until I can see it in person. Here's their facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/eclecticgeekerystore/

I am continuing in my project to livestream from anywhere whether busking or playing in a park. I got a nice little battery powered PA, the Samson Expedition Express+, so that along with my Roland GO:Piano and my Acer laptop provide the core functionality for livestreaming off the grid. I have played with this rig at the Craighead Forest Bandshell in Jonesboro and I look forward to streaming from Beatles Park, just around the corner from Eclectic Geekery, in Walnut Ridge. I'm bringing chill jazz piano to the great outdoors as soon as it warms up and the Omicron surge wanes.

Here's my Twitch link.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

And my Youtube page.

https://www.youtube.com/hairylarry

Please follow at both links and give my stats a bump.

Help me grow Gamer+. Forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/886

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat. Saturday mornings at 11:00 Central. This is the first Saturday in February so our broad topic is fantasy and science fiction. Our opening topic will be how RPGs follow trends in fantasy and science fiction literature.

Inspired Unrealty is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been to Tenkar's we have a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I just finished rereading the Lyonesse Trilogy, a fantasy classic by Jack Vance. This trilogy includes some of the best descriptions of fairies in feyland I've ever read and I've read so much fey literature that feyland is like a second home to me. Highly recommended. Please post your recommendations today and we'll discuss them on Inspired Unreality Saturday morning.

I have been winnowing our home library by donating books to Eclectic Geekery, a new books and games store soon to open in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. My daughters, Sarah and Megan, are following their dream and I am supporting them any way I can.

ZDL sends New Years greetings. It is, in fact, The Year of the Tiger. Babies born in The Year of the Tiger show strength, bravery, and courage, ready to play a warrior in the RPG of their choice.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/ZDL

While posting to the Gamer+ Tumbler I found this amazing animation of Beth Fuller creating "in the cracking dusk" a beautiful piece of fantasy artwork. I posted the link on Gamer+.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4460

It's a few minutes long and well worth the watch.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/885

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat begins at 11:00 AM Central on Saturday, January 29. We do not believe in predestination so we have predetermined no topic. Opening topic - Studying Noumena. If you get just crosseyed enough this paragraph makes sense.

Join us in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. You can find a link to Tenkar's here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next Saturday will be the first Saturday in February so our topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. The opening topic next week will be Why do RPGs parallel fantasy and science fiction literature?

Eclectic Geekery
Books, Games and More!

My daughters are opening a book shop in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. You can expect regular updates.

Great poster art here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4453

Shop Eclectic Geekery. You'll be glad you did!

I was scrounging around in some of the back rooms at Delta Boogie and I found some wizard artwork Kier drew for me in 1996.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4452

Please welcome austin_grafx to Gamer+. He drew his own avatar.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/austin_grafx

Forward this email and share this link to Gamer+ News.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/884

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Saturday morning at 11:00 Central join us for Inspired Unreality open game chat. There's no starting topic this week so bring your own topic, all gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's there's a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week Viv and I were joined by Alan and Peaktime for our Inspired Unreality open game chat. We mostly talked about computer programming, discussing recent projects and looking at what programming languages are hot in game development.

Peaktime is working on a character generator for BX, Alan is compiling a list of 2nd Edition wizards spells, and I am working on the Plain Text Blog. I think we enjoy programming as much as we do gaming.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4437

I am glad to report that the Main page has stayed up all week. Sure is fun not having to worry about Gamer+ errors.

When we last left Ari and Caper in Milyagon they were talking to the Jakobs, a family of seven, Jake and Liz, and their five kids, baby Ameira, Will, Bill, Cassie, and Sandra. In keeping with my contention that every NPC deserves two sentences we did a little writing so I'll have something to work from the next time we play. Not only did we capture all seven family members we also described a lot of the interactions that make a family work.

Here's some of it.

Sandra seems restless, always shifting her feet about. In spite of Liz's careful plaitwork Sandra's braids remained unruly. She is constantly active, grooming the horses while talking and jesting.

Cassie was her sister's shadow but she couldn't be more different in her pretty blue dress and her braids falling over her shoulders. Her eyes dart about keeping up with everything that's happening.

Bill and Will were often mistaken for twins. Will was big for his age and almost Bill's size. They were both healthy, ruddy, and husky with a glint of wit in their eyes. Bill is headstrong and doesn't understand why he can't do everything his sisters do. Will is more likely to heed his parents strictures partly because he sees the trouble Bill gets himself into.

Ameira, the baby, is almost a year old. She is a beautiful baby with blue eyes and golden curls. She is not, however, an easy baby to care for, her troubled nights have kept both Liz and Jake awake in the campgrounds.

There's more but overall it's as compact as what you read here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/882

ZDL joined Discord! And when she updated her profile I noticed she is also on Mastodon. You may have noticed my Mastodon link in my signature at the end of Gamer+ News. Like Gamer+, Mastodon is an alternative social network. Highly recommended.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/ZDL

Please forward this email and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/883

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Ari and Caper met the Jakobs, Jake and Liz, and their five kids, baby Ameira, Will, Bill, Cassie, and Sandra on the road to Milyagon. While visiting at the Witch's cottage Ari got to wondering about whether they had arrived in Milyagon yet. She had become attached to the children and thought she might be able to help them.

Jake and Liz named their first child Cassandra hoping to call her Cassie but everyone called her Sandra instead. So they named their second child Cassie.

Sandra seems restless, always shifting her feet about. In spite of Liz's careful plaitwork Sandra's braids remained unruly. She is constantly active, grooming the horses while talking and jesting.

Cassie was her sister's shadow but she couldn't be more different in her pretty blue dress and her braids falling over her shoulders. Her eyes dart about keeping up with everything that's happening.

Jake and Liz named their first boy William hoping to call him Will but everyone called him Bill instead. So they named their second boy Will.

Bill and Will were often mistaken for twins. Will was big for his age and almost Bill's size. They were both healthy, ruddy, and husky with a glint of wit in their eyes. Bill is headstrong and doesn't understand why he can't do everything his sisters do. Will is more likely to heed his parents strictures partly because he sees the trouble Bill gets himself into.

Ameira, the baby, is almost a year old. She is a beautiful baby with blue eyes and golden curls. She is not, however, an easy baby to care for, her troubled nights have kept both Liz and Jake awake in the campgrounds.

Jake tends horses and he hopes to start a breeding business with the herd of seven horses he has brought north to Milyagon. He wears a knit cap he can pull down over his ears and he meets everyone with a grin. He's lean but muscular enough that you can tell he work's hard caring for his horses.

Liz's countenance radiates a composure that is remarkable in light of the chaos that surrounds her. She controls her girls with a look or a hand sign that Ari quickly learns to copy. A wave, a nod, or a flip of the hair is all it takes to tell the girls what to do next.

The big news this week is that the Main page is back. Thanks to ZDL for reporting the outage. I got right on it and tried everything I could think of and eventually the offending post scrolled off the page and the site fixed itself.

So great? But also ???. I am still looking into migrating to Open Source Social Network which is being currently maintained, has a better mobile app, and offers paid support. When I get a test version up and running I will post a link here in the Gamer+ News for anyone interested in helping me test it.

I am glad that Gamer+ fixed itself because that takes the pressure off and I can take some time with the migration. My music composition lessons start next week so once again I will be a little bit too busy.

Saturday, January 15, at 11:00 AM Central, Inspired Unreality continues in it's new day and time. Some of the regulars are noticing the transition. Last week it was just Vivian and I so we continued in our Ari and Caper adventures in Milyagon. They have left the witch's cottage and are back in Milyagon where Ari and Caper are visiting with the family they met on the road. We named all the kids and Mom and Dad too so now it's my job to write a couple of sentences about each.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Saturday morning at 11:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tankar's there's a link here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Today is Vivian's birthday. I'm just adding this here to rub it in. Vivian has been role playing longer than I have in fact she was a DM before there was D&D. As Arimeth with her cat, Tude, she and Caper are building out the Milyagon locale. By cat we mean mountain lion. Tude comes up to Ari's waist which means shoulder high on Caper the halfling. It's kind of cool having a mountain lion nuzzling me in the face.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/sound

I love Gamer+ which has chat and messaging. I am also active on Discord at Tenkar's Tavern, Megantopia, Family Chat, and on my music server, hairylarryland. Here's a link to the HairyLarryLand Discord server.

https://discord.gg/MgnZC464YS

But if you want to get in touch with me email is the thing. I check my email several times a day and I check everything else several times a week and I don't always get every message then.

So, forward this email. Share this link. And send me an email.

Thanks
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

It came to me in a flash this morning. I will run Gamer+ on my home server. That way this instance can continue running until I have the new Gamer+ install stable. And this instance can remain up as a read only archive of everything posted. I will blog the project here.

Inspired Unreality open game chat tomorrow, Saturday January 8, at 11:00 AM Central. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Everyone is welcome to come chat about games.

Last week was Fantasy and Science Fiction and I did some short readings from the Lyonesse Trilogy by Jack Vance illustrating my idea that every NPC deserves at least two sentences. There is nothing like short descriptive text to help the DM portray the NPC in a believable manner. Jack Vance is a master.

Thanks to Ducalisto for joining us at Inspired Unreality open game chat.  We discussed fantasy and scifi gaming systems.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4414

The main page at Gamer+ is down. I have been working on it trying to resolve the issue. I've also been adding occasional posts trying to scroll the issue off the screen. So far no luck. Somebody needs to roll luck for me.

All the other pages are working fine. You can still post and read other people's posts, comment, etc. It's just the Main page that's not working.

So as well as trying to fix Gamer+ I have also been looking into changing platforms for Gamer+. Oxwall is a good platform for computers but the mobile app is poor at best. In today's world most people prefer to use their phone so I would like to upgrade to a platform with good mobile support and good tech support too.

Any suggestions? I have been looking into the Open Source Social Network. I have also used Elgg but I don't know how good the mobile support is on Elgg. It will be work to change platforms so I want to do my research up front.

We got a domestic robot. I for one look forward to serving our robot overlords. But until then scrub that floor.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4416

Vivian and I played an Ari and Caper in a Milyagon game yesterday. The brownies made Ari a wreathed hat out of wildflowers that acts like a love charm. The Milyagon witch gave Ari a basket to keep it in so it's not "on" all the time.

Vivian also filled in a lot of back story about Ari and Tude and set us up for an encounter with a family she met on the road.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4420

Thanks,

Hairy Larry

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry

https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

I wrote a new program called Plain Text Blog and it is what it says.

Install the program and put your text files into the text directory and it all becomes a blog with permalinks, rss feed, table of contents, and automatic link detection.

It's cool.

Here's Hairy Larry Writes using Plain Text Blog.

https://hairylarry.rocks/writes/

I rely on it.

This is the last Gamer+ News of 2021 and the first Gamer+ News on our new schedule. I bet a lot of you were wondering why you didn't get the news last Monday. Well, here it is! Now on a Friday.

Tomorrow, Inspired Unreality open game chat at 11:00 AM Central is in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. It's the first Saturday of the month so this week our topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction.

If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern there's a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I am re-rereading The Lyoness Trilogy by Jack Vance and in this rereading I am getting a lot of tips for DMs as well as for writers. Join us to discuss your favorite Fantasy and Science Fiction books, games, movies, etc.

What I got for Christmas.

Carl gave a stack of magazines to each family. I also got two nice carnivorous plants from Kier. I'll post pics of those after I paint them.

I added a photo gallery with the magazine covers.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/115

In with the magazines were five copies of Swords & Wizardry Light, written by Tenkar, a Gamer+ gamer and proprietor of Tenkar's Tavern home of Inspired Unreality.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/tenkar

Bembo the Barbarian.

Questionable Content is a rom com webzine with robots. But for the last several days Jeph Jacques has been drawing Bembo The Barbarian and it's a hoot.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4403

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/875

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

We're on Christmas Break! No Inspired Unreality until January when we'll start the New Year discussing Fantasy and Science Fiction.

I will be changing the time for Inspired Unreality to earlier in the day on Saturdays. Probably 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM. Please weigh in. January 1 is right around the corner. Here's a link to Gamer+ and my email is below.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I am also looking for DMs interested in hosting a one off with only me as the PC. This can be in any game system and doesn't have to be, but could be, at the time specified for Inspired Unreality. I would record these actual play sessions for the DM and possibly for a Gamer+ podcast. Since there's only one PC, character creation can be quick. If the game hosted has unusual rules or other quirks the DM can explain them as we go. I like to set goals so.

Goal 1 - have fun
Goal 2 - Gamer+ podcast
Goal 3 - Introductory material for the DM and the game

Let me know if you're interested. I have several DMs in mind. If this happens on Inspired Unreality it will be monthly at most. If you prefer another time I'll work with you.

I have been enjoying ZDL's series of posts based on Georges Polti's The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. This is the kind of thing that can really help DM's create dramatic tension. Here's a link to her latest.

Vengeance taken for kindred upon kindred.
https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/871

I graduated Saturday and those who are related to geeks gathered here for my graduation party, birthday parties, and chicken enchiladas. Continuing our traditional Christmas Festivities we had Cookie Day on Sunday, the day when DMs and players gather, not for role playing, but for cookie baking. I mean it ain't a good game without snacks, right?

Please forward this email to your friends. And share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/872

Thanks and Merry Christmas,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we have a guest, VB-Wyrde of Elthos. He will be chatting about his game Elthos focusing on character creation and what makes Elthos different.

I think we'll actually roll up a few characters to see how it works. If you are interested in Elthos or just exploring new RPG systems in general I'm sure you will enjoy Inspired Unreality tonight.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 10:00 PM Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more information and an invitation to Tenkar's go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

ZDL has started a series of posts she is calling "The Thirty-Six" reflecting on Georges Polti's "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations". She has links to the original version and the modernized take.

Dramatic Situations get right to the heart of what I love about role playing so I'm looking forward to these posts and to getting acquainted with Polti's work.

Thanks ZDL. I'm as excited as a podcaster.

One of Thirty-Six from ZDL's blog
https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/863

Two of Thirty-Six from ZDL's blog
https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/866

Three of Thirty-Six from ZDL's blog
https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/867

Follow Me And Die posted a blog about Grave Growth. If you're like me and you don't know what grave growth is he explains in his first sentence. "The flowers and other flora that grow on graves is called Grave Growth." He then goes on to explain how to use grave growth in a game.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4371

Modern day grave growth includes glass jars holding plastic flowers.

Pete Seeger also covered grave growth in his song "Where Have All The Flowers Gone".

And since I've cleverly segued into music I have a personal announcement to make. I will be taking my second degree, a Bachelors in Music Composition this Saturday. Since I'm retired I don't expect this to change my career. Especially since my retirement hobby is writing and playing music. But, I did the work and now I'm getting the degree and I'm trying not to break my arm patting myself on the back.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends. And share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/868

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Hi and welcome to this first Monday Gamer+ News where for once I am totally prepared.

Tonight at Inspired Unreality we will discuss fantasy and science fiction. Our opening topic will be Jack Vance, his writing and his contribution to D&D. I've got a refresher post here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4369

The fantasy of Jack Vance.

Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1984.

The Dying Earth features one of the greatest fantasy antiheroes of all time, Cugel the Clever. The Dying Earth setting also hosts other stories full of other antiheroes.

The Lyonesse Trilogy, Suldrun's Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc. Madouc won the World Fantasy Award in 1990 and contains the most delightful fey adventure ever written.

There's more. Follow the link.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invite for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Follow Me And Die! posted "When Wizards Die" to his blog. As always his thoughts on the matter are wide ranging and comprehensive. It's a recommended read and it reminded me of Jack Vance which led to the post above and the topic tonight.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4367

So after I read that I noticed a link to Medieval Demographics Made Easy and I clicked over to that.

The booklet is fantastic not only as a guide to medieval demographics but also as an example of how to put together a fantasy supplement that is useful and entertaining.

Thanks to S. John Ross and Follow Me And Die.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4368

Next week, on Inspired Unreality, VB Wyrde will be hosting a one off set in his fantasy world, Elthos. I am looking forward to that. See you then and also tonight! for fantasy and science fiction, with the opening topic, Jack Vance.

They say that word of mouth advertising is the best which is great because it's all we can afford. Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/860

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we'll have open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. We have been working on Caper's Songbook, Ari's medicinal teas, and a dice table of RPG chat topics.

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and an invite go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week is the first Monday in December so our topic will be fantasy and science fiction. With all the new releases on video and in the theaters we should have plenty to talk about. Of course, we could also talk about books.

And then, on December 13, VB Wyrde is going to DM a one off in Elthos. The only thing better than talking about RPGs is playing RPGs so we are bringing actual play back to Inspired Unreality. I am also entertaining the idea of guest hosts so if you would like to lead a discussion about your favorite topic let me know and we will schedule you in.

Important Saturdays in December.

Dec 18 - Hairy Larry graduates, again, this time with a Bachelors of Music in Composition.

Dec 25 - Christmas

Jan 1 - New Years Day (ok, not technically in December)

The important thing to note is that this leaves all our Mondays clear for Inspired Unreality. Open game chat will continue on Monday nights through December with no  holiday hiatus necessary.

And now about Thanksgiving.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4341

As noted our family games this Thanksgiving were Doodle Dice and Qwirkle. What games did you play? The comments remain open.

And then immediately following Thanksgiving.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4354

Same players, different game. On Friday it was Theatre of the mind at our house and on Saturday, with miniatures, visiting our Foster kids.

As above the comments remain open for any role playing you experienced over Thanksgiving.

And at the top of the Gamer+ Gamers feed we find Radio Grognard By Glen Hallstrom discussing Be Yourself (or Not).

https://anchor.fm/radio-grognard/episodes/Be-Yourself-or-Not-e1avakj

It's a short listen and well worth it. He discusses distinguishing NPCs. Not all gruff dwarves are the same. Maybe they're worried about their family at home or maybe they've been held prisoner.

This is similar to a couple of things we've been discussing on Inspired Unreality. "Every NPC deserves a Couple of Sentences" and "Are all Taverns the Same?". As a way to distinguish a tavern in a players memory try for some actual color in the barkeep and the barmaid. If your barkeep and barmaid are exactly the same as they were in the last tavern you visited then maybe all your taverns are the same.

In our Friday night family game we visited a tavern and the barkeep was a lady and she was also the mayor of the town and she sent us on a quest. We remember her.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/857

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight! Inspired Unreality open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and an invite link click here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week DM Sarah ran a DCC one off with a party of 3. It was great fun and we did get the magic sword from the hermit's tower. Thanks to Peaktime for joining us.

December 6 we'll discuss Fantasy and Science Fiction. On December 13 we have another one off scheduled hosted by VB Wyrde creator of Elthos.

Tonight and next week will be open game chat. Our favorite.

Tabletop Games for Thanksgiving Gatherings.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4341

Please post your game suggestions for Thanksgiving in the comments.

I have an announcement to make. <trumpets> On December 18 I will be graduating ... again. I took my Computer Science degree 35 years ago. I was a math and music double major. Now I am taking my Bachelors of Music in Composition. <trumpets> Yayyy!

Please forward this email to your gaming friends. And share this link to Gamer+ News on gamerplus.org.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/849

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight! On Inspired Unreality. Actual Play!

GM Sarah is running a DCC one off. It will be fun. I've played in her games before. She is a convention GM for DCC hosting games at major gatherings.

Sarah is also one of the volunteers leading the NEA Gamers Guild and their convention, NEA Game Fest. They had a successful convention in Jonesboro, Arkansas, just last month.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. You can find more information and an invitation to Tankar's Tavern here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

The game tonight starts at 9:00 but we will be there early for character generation and other pregame prep.

Next month, on December 13, we'll have actual play again with vbwyrde hosting.

So we have a schedule.

First Monday of the month we discuss fantasy and science fiction. Third Monday of the month we have a guest or a game. All other Mondays are for open game chat, bring your own topic, all gaming is on topic.

So, now, to go off topic for a minute, Vivian and I went out to the Craighead Forest Bandshell yesterday for live music. I played chill jazz piano for a small and rotating audience. Eleiser joing me on trumpet for the second set.

A good time was had by all. We saw some old friends for the first time in two years. And we stayed warm with coats and throws. It was 60 degrees so great temperature for playing music but a little chilly in the audience when the wind blew.

This is a safe way for Vivian and I to return to our old habit of gigging out regularly. We might get warm Sundays this winter (after all it is Arkansas) but unless there is yet another surge we really look forward to Spring.

I tried to livestream with a hot spot but that didn't work so I just settled for recording and I don't think that worked either. But the plan is to livestream and record from the bandshell just like I do from the twitch studio and the twitch porch.

If you're on twitch follow me here.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

I also added our RSS feed to the right column on the Main Page at Gamer+. Here's that link again.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

If you have a gaming blog, vlog, podcast, or channel with an RSS feed let me know and I'll add you to our feed.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/846

Thanks,
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight! Inspired Unreality open game chat. Last week we discussed fantasy and science fiction and had some readings. Next week we have a game. Tonight it's bring your own topic. Or suggest a topic for our RPG chat topics D20 table. (soon to be a D100 table)

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkars Tavern on Discord. You can find more info and an invitation here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week on Monday November 15, GM Sarah will host a DCC one off. The game will start at 9:00 but we'll be their a half hour early doing game prep. We'll be done by 10:30 or 11:00. GM Sarah is a DCC convention gamemaster and she is one of the hosts at NEA Game Fest. They had a successful convention just last month.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Sarah

So, actual play on Inspired Unreality next week. This is sure to be a blast.

D20 table for chat topics about RPGs
soon to be a D100

 1. What is railroading and why is it bad?
 2. Sandboxes
 3. What makes OSR better? What makes OSR worse?
 4. Free Kriegspiel
 5. Hex crawls
 6. Megadungeons
 7. Random Encounters
 8. Combat free roll playing
 9. Systems of handing out XP to players
10. Group XP vs Individual XP
11. How online play has changed RPGs
12. Fudging rolls?
13. The Quantum Ogre
14. Premade maps vs maps drawn at the table
15. Is there really only one tavern? How to make your tavern memorable.
16. Don't generic barkeeps or waitresses deserve at least a sentence.
17. NPCs are color and more
18. Writing your own game
19. How good is DriveThruRPG anyway
20. Do I want to have a Kick Starter?

This is usable but we have not begun to scratch the infinite universe of possible RPG chat topics. Join us tonight to add your favorite chat topics to an expanded D100 table.

Please welcome "GameCows - The #1 site for board game enthusiasts" to Gamer+.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/GameCows

I write about a cool concept. An illusionist who fights wearing an illusion and when killed it's really only the illusion that is broken. The PCs see a corpse that bears the actual appearance of the illusionist and mistakenly think they're dead. But, lo and behold, the next time their attack rolls around they are up and fighting again, although probably with fewer hitpoints and less dangerous attacks.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4320

Please forward this email to your gaming friends. And share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/843

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we will be discussing fantasy and science fiction. This is a broad topic so to spice things up a little bit I'll be reading a few of my super shorts to juice the conversation, so to speak. If you write fantasy or science fiction, stories or modules, bring an excerpt to read. So, reading original fantasy and science fiction to spark the conversation.

Here's my website where I publish my super shorts.

https://sffshortstories.com/

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkars Tavern here's info and an invite.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Robert S. Conley writes

"It occurred to me recently that the original release of Dungeons and Dragons is best viewed as a supplement. Not to the Chainmail Miniature wargame but to the unwritten rules, systems, and methods the miniature wargaming community of the early 70s were using."

Quoted from his blog post, "The original release of Dungeons and Dragons was a supplement."

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4312

This is an interesting post with a few interesting comments as well.

Yesterday Megan did a 12 hour twitch stream for Halloween. If you've got a spare 12 hours you can view it here.

https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia

I featured myself on my From The Archives Of Something Blue podcast which will be aired on KASU Wednesday and Saturday. But you don't have to wait. You can listen now at the Something Blue website.

http://sbblues.com/2021/10/31/from-the-archives-of-something-blue-october-31-2021/

The featured song is a modal blues I wrote called "Blue Goose". The archives go back in time 40 years or more but they start yesterday. I recorded "Blue Goose" on my twitch stream last week. And the spoken content is an overview of the whole project. It's almost nine minutes long and worth the listen.

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/841

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight! Inspired Unreality Open Game Chat. Last week we enjoyed chatting with Peaktime. Tonight is bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. Next week is the first Monday of November which means we have a topic. Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Last week we worked on a table for chat topics about RPGs. Don't have a topic. Roll one up.

D20 table for chat topics about RPGs
soon to be a D100

What is railroading and why is it bad?
Sandboxes
What makes OSR better? What makes OSR worse?
Free Kriegspiel
Hex crawls
Megadungeons
Random Encounters
Combat free roll playing
Systems of handing out XP to players
Group XP vs Individual XP
How online play has changed RPGs
Fudging rolls?
The Quantum Ogre

Ok, that's just 13 so far and they could use some refinement. But we're still brainstorming. Come brainstorm with us. Or bring your own topic. Or suggest favorite RPG chat topics for our dice rolling table.

It will be fun.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info and an invite here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

All our best to Alan and his family who have been having health issues. I chatted with him yesterday and he is planning on joining us tonight.

Are you on twitch? Follow these channels. If you have a twitch channel let me know and I will add you to the list of Gamer+ gamers on twitch.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland
https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia
https://www.twitch.tv/searchingforgryphons

On Halloween Megan is doing a 12 hour stream on her twitch channel. No spoilers but she has been working on some visual effects and I am sure she will play many spooky games.

Join her stream and follow her channel. Congratulate her for reaching affiliate status.

Please forward this email and share this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/838

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

NEA Game Fest ended yesterday. Kier said that attendance was better than expected with many out of town guests from as far away as Chicago and attendance totals competing with their last in person Game Fest which was pre covid. The NEA Gamers Guild is on a roll. I'm looking forward to more gaming in the future.

On October 15, Charlie Clay posted "Lots of fun playing TANK ACE tonight at NEA Game Fest.  Battle kicks off again tomorrow at 10 a.m."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/neagamersguild/posts/6309500619121429/

I added his pictures to a photo album.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/109
---
About The NEA Gamers Guild

The Northeast Arkansas Gamers Guild is a group dedicated to the promotion of RPGs, board games, miniature games and all games played on the tabletop!

Our goal is to provide places to play and schedule events throughout each month as well as to provide a place for other gamers, organizations and businesses to advertise their gaming events.

NEA Gamers Guild Website
http://www.neagamersguild.org/

NEA Gamers Guild Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/neagamersguild/
---
 - https://www.neagamefest.com/about-us/

Vivian and I put on Blue Fest for 25 years. All of our kids helped with that. It's great seeing my kids continue in our festival promoting way. It's always all about the people.

And tonight! Inspired Unreality open game chat.

Last week I enjoyed chatting games with Alan, Peaktime, and sound. It was a wide ranging discussion that started with the role of the DM. My opinion. The DM shouldn't drive the narrative but he should be alert for narrative hooks in the play and stand ready to enhance the story.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4293

Join us tonight. Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tankar's Tavern on Discord. Everyone is welcome. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. More info here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Are you interested in running a one off for us? Let me know.

My mommy said it's good to share. Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link to Gamer+ News to help spread the word.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/837

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality Open Game chat we have open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Last week Alan, Vivian, and myself discussed Fantasy and Science Fiction and, amazingly enough, we stayed pretty much on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Everyone is invited.

Next weekend is NEA Game Fest.

https://www.neagamefest.com/

"NEA Game Fest is a charity omni con in Jonesboro, AR, with all proceeds benefiting The Children's Shelter of Walnut Ridge. We have events, prizes, and giveaways for board games, card games, miniatures, RPGs, and more!"

"Attendees (3+) must wear mask. In addition, attendees (16+) must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination"

Stay safe.

You have until Thursday to get your badge online. I believe their are savings involved with the pre purchase.

https://tabletop.events/conventions/nea-game-fest-2021/badgetypes

Badges will also be available at the door.

They have six pages of events.

https://tabletop.events/conventions/nea-game-fest-2021/schedule#?query=

Play and Win. Tournaments!

I can't go because we're locked down until the delta variant wanes. So I bought a T Shirt. You can also just donate if you want to help and can't attend.

There's an NEA Game Fest Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/neagamefest

And an NEA Gamers Guild Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/855721771166035

There are many Gamer+ Gamers who are involved in NEA Game Fest. Three cheers for all the volunteers who work to make this happen.

Please share by forwarding this email or sharing this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/836

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight! At Inspired Unreality! We have a topic! Fantasy and Science Fiction!

I read a lot and I also enjoy some fantasy and science fiction movies and tv shows. I have played in a couple of SF RPGs but, of course, fantasy RPGs are my main thing. There's also a lot of Fantasy and SF in other media, games, graphic novels, blogs, vlogs, etc.

Here's the place where I plug Megan's and Kim's Buffy podcast, Flunking The Written.

https://www.flunkingthewritten.com/

Yes this is a broad topic. Everyone is welcome. Bring your own topic. All Fantasy and SF is on topic.

For example, FKR - Free Kriegsspiel Revolution, would definitely be on topic. Here's a Follow Me And Die post about FKR, a rules light OSR RPG.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4278

Like I said, I read a lot. Here's my current and some recents I can recommend. With links! Woohoo!

I am currently reading The Inheritance Trilogy. I'm on book 3. This is an earlier fantasy story by N. K. Jemisin who won three Hugos in three consecutive years each for a book in the Broken Earth Trilogy. I read that too. I like the Inheritance Trilogy better without thinking it's actually better. Just more to my taste.

She posted The Inheritance Trilogy Non-Wiki which includes her notes made while writing the books. She has licensed these notes CC BY-SA-NC so yes, you can repost these notes or work from them under some restrictions. More at this link.

https://nkjemisin.com/the-inheritance-trilogy-non-wiki/

I love Russian Folklore so "Deathless" by Catherynne M. Valente was just like it was written for me. I mean, Baba Yaga is in it and everything.

"Deathless is an alternate history novel ... combining the Russian fairy tale The Death of Koschei the Deathless with the events and aftermath of the Russian Revolution."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathless_(novel)

Nancy Springer writes YA Fantasy but in her Enola Holmes mysteries she writes an alternative history of a fictional world. Enola Holmes is Sherlock Holmes' younger sister, somehow never mentioned by Arthur Conan Doyle. Each book is a novella, a quick read, and absolutely delightful.

https://murder-mayhem.com/enola-holmes-books-nancy-springer

"For centuries mystical creatures of all description were gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. The sanctuary survives today as one of the last strongholds of true magic. Enchanting? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet. Safe? Well, actually, quite the opposite."

Yes, I do love reading YA Fantasy. And I do recommend "Fablehaven".

https://susandennard.com/2011/09/18/fablehaven-a-book-recommendation/

I just finished "The Chosen and the Beautiful" by Nghi Vo, a retelling of "The Great Gatsby" in a world with magic, demons, demoniac, and paper coming to life. This is an exquisite work. One of the best crafted novels I have ever read (and I read a lot). It's also very entertaining.

Megan said she knows she loves a book when she wants to reread it as soon as she finishes it. As soon as I finished this book I wanted to reread "The Great Gatsby" and then reread "The Chosen and the Beautiful".

https://booksbonesbuffy.com/2021/06/10/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful-by-nghi-vo-review/

So in case you didn't catch onto the circle I'll explain it. I plugged Megan's Buffy podcast at the top. At the bottom I refer to Megan again and then provide a link to Books, Bones, and Buffy. Pretty clever, huh?

Join us tonight to discuss these stories or others.

Inspired Unreality, open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Please forward this email to your Fantasy and SF loving friends. Also post this link to your website, blog, or preferred social media.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/831

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

First off, thanks to Robert S. Conley for joining us last week on Inspired Unreality. We got a quick tour of his very creative career and then launched right into some rollicking roll playing reminiscing. I hope to chat with him again.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4270

If you want to learn more about what he does and what he's done here's a link to his Gamer+ page.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/robertsconley

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we'll host open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Everyone is welcome. If you've never been we have info and an invite here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

At the same link you can see the new Gamer+ search feature. It's Enhanced by Google and it works pretty good.

Gamer+ Gamers from the NEA Gamers Guild are hard at work preparing for the NEA Game Fest on October 15-17, 2021.

https://www.neagamefest.com/

And I've added another chapter to my book, "Setting Up A Twitch Studio, Using Tech Creatively", Livestreaming Buskers Off The Grid. This one's way out there. In the future. Eventually.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/829

Please forward this email to your gaming friends. And here's a link to this newsletter online that you can share on social networks.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/830

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

When you get the creative flow going you want to keep it going. I find a new project focuses attention and keeps me involved. So sometimes you have to look to the future to try to envision new possibilities.

And that's where I'm at with livesteaming buskers off the grid. I've done a couple of failed experiments with my phone but I don't have good reception on the twitch porch so that probably doesn't mean much. I'm a lot further along with the busking equipment than I am with the livestream stuff.

There are many battery powered amps available. I chose the JBL Eon One Pro for about $500. I am very happy with the sound and the battery life. It also has Bluetooth which I use for playing my iReal Pro backing tracks from my tablet. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A and it has good battery life.

I have a Roland Go Piano that runs off batteries and it has nice keyboard action and good piano sound. But since I've been livestreaming I notice the difference between it and my Roland FP-4. Both in playability and in sound. I could use the midi out on the Go Piano and play from a midi library on the laptop. This might not take up too much cpu.

I would rather busk with a good hammer action keyboard. There are some good keyboards that use batteries. Just not the ones I'm looking at. So I'm looking into a couple of Deep Cycle 12V batteries and an inverter. This rig would also run my pellet stove in the winter if we lose power so I am justifying the expense that way. Otherwise this probably wouldn't be an affordable solution for me. There are smaller batteries that might run just a piano and one battery and an inverter would be a little over $100.

There are also consumer battery charger/jump starters with 110 outlets. Again the multifunctionality may justify the expense.

I bought an Acer Aspire E5-576 laptop that has enough cpu and ram to livestream video. I have used it for livestreaming 720p from the twitch porch. This laptop has an exceptionally long battery life, 9 hours or more of regular computing. Unfortunately livestreaming is not regular computing and the fully charged batteries only last a little under 2 hours. Which is actually pretty good for livestreaming buskers. An inverter might extend that life to do a three hour show with breaks but I would have to see how much battery it would take to power the piano for three hours. It could be that two hour shows are more realistic.

They are certainly more realistic for my endurance. I do a two hour stream from the HairyLarryLand Twitch Studio every Sunday and I don't really want it to be any longer.

I also have a USB foot switch that I cover in the DIY chapter so I can even have two webcams and switch between them when I'm busking.

So if I happen to find a busking spot with good wifi I'm home free.

And if not? My phone has a hotspot that will hook to my computer with a USB cable. It's a 4G phone so if I had good reception it might work. More modern phones would probably work better. There are many livestreamers that stream direct from their iPhones.

There are also dedicated hotspot devices with monthly fees for bandwidth. It's kind of hard to justify this expense based on a busking income but that actually depends on what you are doing and what kind of budget you have. You may also have other uses for a high end hotspot. If you're travelling while busking and stopping where you wish a hot spot like this might be just the ticket.

And then there's always plan B. If you don't have wifi and you don't have good reception for your hotspot you can turn on record and post the video later.

Right now I have three dreams for the future of my livestream. We've streamed from the twitch porch a couple of times and I feel like that's all set up and ready to go. You can read about that in another chapter. I am looking forward to more livestreams with Bebop Beatniks from the twitch porch.

My current dream is finding soloists to collaborate with me and turn my jazz trio livestreams into a quartet. Whether they do that on their livestream or in their video or audio studios it's all good with me. My songs are licensed Creative Commons Attribution so there are no copyright issues stopping anyone from collaborating with me.

Livestreaming buskers off the grid is my future dream. So this chapter is out there. In the future. Eventually. Maybe I'll be able to do this and maybe not.

"A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s heaven for?"

 - Robert Browning

Inspired Unreality
September 20, 2021 at 9:00 PM Central

Special Guest - Robert S. Conley, Creator of Blackmarsh and The Majestic Fantasy RPG

Our topic will be the difference between writing classic D&D vs. 5e?
How to write for both?
How to convert from OSR to 5e?

I know that sounds like three topics but they are very closely intertwined.

Robert S. Conley links.

Blackmarsh
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/89944/Blackmarsh

The Majestic Fantasy RPG
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/337515/The-Majestic-Fantasy-RPG-Basic-Rules

Bat in the Attic
https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/

Robert S. Conley on Gamer+
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/robertsconley

This will be really interesting. Everyone is welcome.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord every Monday night at 9:00 Central. More info and an invite here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week on Inspired Unreality.

We had a good open game chat at Inspired Unreality. Alan and SearchingForGryphons joined Vivian and myself and we ended up talking about music and Science Fiction.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4260

We didn't write any new verses for "Wee Will" but SearchingForGryphons contributed this limerick.

There once was a young boy Wee Will
Who found a bag of gold on a hill
He went back to the hold
And he spent all the gold
Until all that he had equalled nil

Draklorx uploaded 9 new photos to the NEA Game Fest Terrain album.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/Draklorx/106

NEA Game Fest is next month.

https://www.neagamefest.com/

My kids are hard at work. Preparations are being made. Show your appreciation, ask questions, make comments.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Sarah
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Draklorx
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Megantopia

The festival is for charity so even if you can't attend you can buy a shirt or make a donation.

Are you planning to attend any live events this fall? Are you planning on doing any virtual gaming? Contact info below or share on Gamer+.

Speaking of sharing. Please share this email and this link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/827

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

"Wee Will" is Caper's song of reckless spending, a favorite of proprietors of gambling establishments and sure to earn him a spot on their stage. "Wee Will" has many verses in which Will alternately gets rich and poor and in which he remains happy throughout. Here's the first two verses.

Wee Will was born
with nary a coin
and his parents had naught neither
His Ma said
Will is gonna be rich
but no one would believe her.

But then one day
Around mid may
Will tripped and skint his knee.
And what did he see
buried under the tree?
'twas the shiny glint of gold.

(everybody sing along)
Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold,
Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold.

He's rich beyond his wildest dreams. But of course it doesn't last.

Tonight on Inspired Unreality Vivian and I will be writing more verses to "Wee Will". Join us to write verses or just to chat about whatever you want, as long as it's gaming. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord every Monday night at 9:00 Central. More info and an invite here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Next week.

Inspired Unreality
September 20, 2021 at 9:00 PM Central

Special Guest - Robert S. Conley, Creator of Blackmarsh and The Majestic Fantasy RPG

Our topic will be the difference between writing classic D&D vs. 5e?
How to write for both?
How to convert from OSR to 5e?

I know that sounds like three topics but they are very closely intertwined.

Robert S. Conley links.

Blackmarsh
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/89944/Blackmarsh

The Majestic Fantasy RPG
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/337515/The-Majestic-Fantasy-RPG-Basic-Rules

Bat in the Attic
https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/

Robert S. Conley on Gamer+
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/robertsconley

Looking forward to this.

I have written another chapter for my book, "Setting Up A Twitch Studio, Using Tech Creatively". It's called "Get Back On That Treadmill" and it may be the last chapter. The last chapter in the book, not the last chapter to be written.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/822

Last night we watched "Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons" on Amazon Prime. They definitely got into the idea of creative flow, a key concept in my book.

I also want to mention that Will Hose, long time family friend and gamerplus gamer, Spark, is moving back to Jonesboro. It will be great to have him close at hand again. Will has been a regular guest at our events and our podcasts. I hope to get him to run a game on Inspired Unreality later this year.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Spark

Spread the word. Forward this email to your gamer friends. Share the link on your favorite websites. Especially if they're your own.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/824

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Ok, this just happened to me and it will happen to you if you undertake a creative project with a schedule.

Things go wrong. Life happens. Stuff breaks. It's inevitable.

My router went out. And before it went out it went intermittent. So I missed a stream.

I checked everything out. I reset the router. I was at the piano. And before I even started to play the internet went out. I knew it just wasn't going to happen.

Fortunately I called my ISP and he helped me detect the problem and I had another router in place for my next stream. But it can be worse.

Way worse. Sometimes stuff comes up and you miss a week or more.

My advice. As soon as you can, get back on that treadmill. Yeah it was kind of nice not having to do all that production work and promotion. It's always nice to have a little extra time in your day.

Still periods of creative flow don't happen all the time. They are to be treasured. Get back on the treadmill and make it happen. Again. Churn it out.

This is a different issue than making a decision to take your efforts elsewhere. To write a game instead of playing some games. To write a book instead of writing more music. These decisions are for you to make. It's your life to live.

But don't let temporary technical problems or real life issues interrupt your flow. Get back on the treadmill.

There are some related issues. Sometimes you have downtime that doesn't affect the stream but hinders some other aspect of your work flow.

After my ISP and I determined that my router was bad I went and pulled another router off the back wall of my house where it sprays wifi out to the icosahedron. I replaced my router with this router (thanks Megan) and we had internet back. Except for one thing.

For my network setup I use the DD-WRT firmware because it supports virtual LANs. I have one LAN on 192.168.1.1 and another LAN on 192.168.2.1. The first is for our daily internet use, wired and wifi computers and other devices that need to connect to the internet. The second is for my web servers, the ones that host hairylarryland.com and hairylarry.rocks. There's a firewall. It's a security thing.

Unfortunately the router I pulled of the back wall doesn't support DD-WRT. So I ordered another, even more up to date router, that does support DD-WRT. Which means a weeks downtime on my servers.

So I can't post to hairylarryland.com and even worse my peertube instance runs on hairylarry.rocks. So it's part of my workflow to post to these sites and I can't so I have to devise workarounds to post my videos and promote them on time. I can still upload to the Live Music Archive and Youtube. I can still promote the Youtube videos but I can't promote the playlists which live on peertube.

And then when I get my new router in, burn DD-WRT to the firmware, and configure it I will have to play catch up.

Sometimes playing catch up will hit you in the back of the head. I played my Sunday stream just before everything went haywire. I missed my Tuesday stream. Then after I patched things together I played my Thursday stream and I logged my songs.

When I went to edit the videos I checked my Sunday stream for the notes.txt file and guess what? I never made these 10 videos. I logged them. Things went haywire. And I got off my procedure.

So instead of having 5 videos to edit I had 15. That's when you really have to buckle down. It's possible to catch up. I did it. It really helped that I was familiar with my work flow. I have to admit I spent less time on some of the videos than I would have if I wasn't playing catch up.

So here's your executive summary.

Technical problems or life issues. Get back on the treadmill.

Missed part of the workflow for a short period. Catch up.

The most important thing, however, is right now going forward. The essence of maintaining your creative flow is to absorb yourself in your project and to just do it. The most important stuff is the stuff you are working on right now.

Memorial Day Inspired Unreality and we're gonna talk about Science Fiction and Fantasy. It's the first Monday of September so we've got a topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been there's more info here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

In two weeks on September 20 we will be chatting with Robert S. Conley. The topic will be differences between writing for classic D&D vs 5e. Please join us then to chat with Robert S. Conley. And tonight Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Gamer+ now has a tumblr.

https://gamerplusdotorg.tumblr.com/

Robert S. Conley wrote about Chainmail Reprints and the Harn Kingdom Hardbacks on his Bat In The Attic blog.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4233

I found this.

"Flash Lingo: A Thieves Cant Dictionary" is the most comprehensive Thieves Cant glossary ever assembled. With over 2,200 entries, this volume has been compiled from historical resources and edited to specifically support fantasy role-playing games. More importantly, it is designed to bring the lexicon of Thieves Cant to life in your campaign world, as an aid for both players and DMs alike. It’s also just a damn enjoyable read!

Free download at DriveThruRPG.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4234

So, how's gaming in your neck of the woods? It's been going great here.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us at Inspired Unreality open game chat tonight at 9:00 Central. Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info and an invite here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

We had a good chat last week night at Inspired Unreality with both Alan and Datum joining Vivian and myself. As happens with those two we drifted off of games and into philosophy.

Next week Inspired Unreality will be about Science Fiction and Fantasy. We do this on the first Monday of the month. That's right, it's almost September already.

And tonight we're winging it. Vivian and I have a fallback plan where we work on our Milyagon locale. Or you may want to chat about something else. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

NEA Game Fest is in October and my kids are hard at work making preparations.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4230

Vivian and I had a little conversation about confidence that's almost a ditty.

All you need is confidence in what you already have and the ability to find what you need.

I have confidence that we can navigate this dungeon and find the treasure.

I have confidence that you can. It's me I'm not sure about.

I have confidence that I can. You have to find your own confidence.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4188

And I posted a chapter about checklists for my book in progress, "Setting Up A Twitch Studio, Using Tech Creatively".

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/817

Let us know what games you've been playing, what songs you've been singing, what stories you've been writing. Post to Gamer+, a social network for creative gamers. Or contact Hairy Larry below. See you tonight on Inspired Unreality.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

No Friendica listing today. One of my webservers is down. Sad face emoticon.

Checklists

A procedure document outlines in detail how to accomplish a task. In my career in office automation I wrote a lot of procedure documents. When you're at a workplace with turnover procedure documents provide continuity when personnel changes. They can be used to train new employees and then the new employees can refer to the procedure document until they learn how to do the task.

In your own technical creative projects you probably don't really need procedure documents. They are a lot of work to make, very detailed, and you are probably not going to be training new employees because you probably don't have employees.

A checklist is a different beast. Each item on a checklist reminds you of the next thing to do so you don't skip steps. You just start at the top and continue down the list until you're done.

On my checklist, some of the items, like uploading the videos to the Live Music Archive, take a long time. So after that checklist item I place an = (equal sign) to signify a multitasking opportunity.

I look down the list for an = in the left column and I can continue there, doing other items on the list until the upload is complete. After the upload is done I can finish the skipped part of the list. The part that needed the upload to be completed to continue.

If there's just an = without an = in the left column below, that means there is a multitacking opportunity here to do something entirely different like cook or take a nap. When I upload to Youtube it takes awhile but I can't really start the promotion without having the Youtube video ready. So, take a break, read some news on the internet, or whatever.

You can (and should) devise your own notation for your checklist. Your project and promotion will have different steps and needs. Different opportunities for multitasking. Figure out what works for you.

Checklists with actual check boxes are commonly used in manual procedures but you don't need check boxes on your checklist. I mean I know the task I just finished so I just do the next item on the list.

Production checklists soon become memorized, perhaps because when you skip a step it usually results in extra work. Promotion checklists, however, are really helpful, because most web promotion is a series of independent tasks and it's really easy to forget one and miss out on that promotion.

Your tasks will be different and your promotion will be different so your checklists will be different. Checklists are a useful tool in many endeavors but especially useful for tech creators.

Here's a sample checklist that I use after I produce the video excerpts from my twitch stream (the top item on the list). The first half is uploading and adding details to the upload sites. The second half is promotion of the uploaded content.

- edit and render videos in Openshot
- rename videos with an NN_ prefix in chronological order
- capture a screen shot
- scale the screen shot
- create list.txt listing the numbered songs
- copy and edit notes.txt changing the date and updating the list
- convert mp4 files to mp3s in VLC
- normalize the mp3s in mp3DirectCut
- rename mp3 files
- upload audio item to the Live Music Archive
- upload video item to the Live Music Archive =
- update metadata in audio item
- bookmark audio item
- add audio item to kgpl
- add audio item to mixremix radio in /radio/TWStream

=
- create playlist on peertube
- make public and assign to twitch.tv/hairylarryland
- copy playlist link
- refresh 2x
- use song.txt to create description
- change playlist link in song.txt
- change date in song.txt
- upload mp4 files to peertube, in order
- search and replace song title in song.txt
- fill out screen
- wait for publish button =
- copy the share link
- edit description adding share link
- save to playlist
- after all the files are uploaded check the playlist
- upload to Youtube
- use song text for description =

- promote youtube and peertube playlist
- allow several hours between promotions
- always use the peertube text for description
- share youtube on facebook and twitter from youtube share panel
- share youtube on friendica
- share to hairylarryland tumblr
- reblog that post everywhere
- share on reddit freeculture and creativecommons
- share on hairylarryland Discord
- share to MixRemix and Hairy Larry Rocks
- post to write.as - youtube link and text from peertube
- Add youtube to Hairy Larry Rocks Links
- Add playlist to Hairy Larry Rocks Links

Inspired Unreality open game chat is tonight at 9:00 PM Central. Lately we've been chatting with Bruce or Alan so Caper's Song Book is on the back burner. It is open game chat, after all, so if you want to help Ari and Caper write the song of reckless spending called "Wee Will" we would be glad to do that.

Or, whatever you want to talk about. All gaming is on topic. Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. Never been? We've got an invitation for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

So, let me give Alan a plug. He's got a game called The Chronicles of Ember. Here's his link. Reach out to him and he will be glad to let you know all about it.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Alan

My granddaughter Liz wants me to remind you that she's awesome. She also joins us sometimes on Inspired Unreality.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/SearchingForGyphons

I've been working on promoting my twitch stream so here goes. If you're on twitch please Follow.

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

If you want to give my chill jazz piano a listen I have a page of playlists here.

https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/video-channels/twitch/video-playlists

And I set up a blog inviting collaboration with songs and scripts that I think will help guest musicians. I have my videos available for download without recompression so twitch streamers can use them as backing tracks while they solo over them.

https://minizines.cc/collaborate/

I am thinking of moving this over to collaborate.hairylarryland.com if I can figure that out.

All of my songs are licensed Creative Commons Attribution so you can use them on your podcast, vlog, game, or movie.

Are you on twitch? Let me know. I love hearing from you.

Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality Ari and Caper continue their work on Caper's Songbook. We have the opening verses for Caper's song of reckless spending called "Wee Will". Here we go.

Wee Will

Wee Will was born
with nary a coin
and his parents had naught neither
His Ma said
Will is gonna be rich
but no one would believe her.

But then one day
Around mid may
Will tripped and skint his knee.
And what did he see
buried under the tree?
'twas the shiny glint of gold.

Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold,
Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold.

Wee Will brought the coin
to his Ma at home
and they were rich as kings
with stars in his eyes
he looked to the skies
and dreamt of his favorite things.

His ma went to town
and the wheel goes round
she paid her bill and then she
loaded up on groceries
like she had no worries
and was left with just a penny.

Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold,
Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold.

Of course we need more tales of Wee Will getting alternately rich and poor.

So drop by tonight
And help us write
The song of reckless spending.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Since we started on Caper we'll end on Caper.

In our 5e family game on Friday Caper the Giant Killer slew another Giant Beast or I should say Caper set the trap and the party beat the daylights out of him and his troll minion. It only cost Caper 5 gold to get a plaque hung in the inn with the giant's sword saying This Giant was killed by Caper the Giant Killer and Company. Caper is a halfling Bard and in the music business it's all hype.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4213

And that's the Gamer+ News of Caper, my favorite D&D character who I have played longer than the age of some of my grandkids playing in the game.

Let me know about your favorite D&D character.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Welcome to Inspired Unreality open game chat, tonight at 9:00 PM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been to Tenkar's Tavern there's a link for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

First on the agenda tonight will be working on Caper's song of reckless spending, a favorite of proprietors in gambling houses everywhere Caper goes. So far I've got something about the wheel goes round but we're going to hammer it out tonight and I need your help.

Last week Alan joined us and we talked a bit about SF and Fantasy books and a bit about writing, discussing our current projects. Alan is working on his Ember module called "Mine". I have run it once at ARRPGCon and once online and it was fun both times.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Alan

He will tell you about The Chronicles of Ember here.

https://chroniclesofember.com/2018/04/10/welcome-to-ember/

I am reading Rebecca Roanhorse. Her novel, "Black Sun", is a Hugo finalist this year and deserves to win. (Although I haven't read any of the other finalists yet. They probably all deserve to win.) She also writes YA Fantasy stories based on Navajo mythology. More here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4199

And I posted another chapter for my book, "Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Using Tech Creatively" called Backup Overview and Strategy. Yeah, I know. Boring. But essential!

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/806

Come to Inspired Unreality tonight to help Caper finish his song of reckless spending. One more page in Caper's Songbook, soon to be a minizine resource for bard's everywhere.

Spread the word.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

There are two types of backups. File backups and system backups. File backups preserve a set of files, for instance my folder /Video/twitch/2021-08-08 which contains the original recording of my twitch stream, Openshot project folders and .osp files that allow me to reload the project into Openshot. Rendered videos that are the actual mp4 files that get uploaded to the internet. Audio files, mp3s extracted from the video files, normalized, and ready to be uploaded to the internet. And other assets, my screenshot, my web size screenshot, and a text file, notes.txt.

If I lose my data on my hard drive, whether the entire folder or just a screenshot, I can go to the backup and recover this file. That is the whole purpose of backups.

System backups allow you to restore your entire working environment, the OS, the drivers, the software installs, the data, etc. I don't do system backups. If I have a catastrophic failure I do a new install and then restore my data from backup.

Some businesses cannot live with the cash flow loss due to excessive downtime. They will have system backups and redundant sustems ready to be swapped in if necessary. Their hard drives will be mirrored and every time they write a bit it will be written to two drives. They will have daily, hourly, or real time offsite backups just in case the catastrophic data loss take the form of a tsunami or a tornado.

Needless to say this kind of full system backup is difficult to install and requires constant monitoring and maintenance. It is not really realistic for an artist's, writer's or gamer's creative project. So I am not going into system backups any further. There are software and hardware turnkey systems that perform both system backups and file backups. If this is what you need and you can afford it then this is what you should do.

Just like web promotion can take the other 100% of your time, backups can take the other 100% of your time. So try to be realistic.

File backups breakdown further into two different categories, active data sets and static data sets.

The data set described above is a static data set. The files are created in the course of a day or two and then it is unlikely they will ever be changed again.

My webdev folder and my Documents folder are active data sets. Each day, week, or other random interval I write to them. I change existing files and I create new files. It's a constant churn, hence active.

Backing up static data sets to optical discs like CDs, DVDs, or Blu-Ray works great. You work on a project. You finish the project. You write it to an optical disc. And you're good. I do this with my Something Blue radio production. When I'm done with each show I have three audio discs and a data disc. The data disc is my static backup.

I also have a backup server that is great for static data sets and not so good for active data sets. I use rsync, a command line file transfer program. I run it once a day on every home directory. If a file is new it gets copied to the backup server. If a file is changed it gets copied to the backup server. As long as this is working correctly I never lose a data file.

Which is great! But not so good for active data sets. Because if I have to recover an active data set and I go to this backup server I get all my files back. But I also get all my deleted files back. This is a feature, not a bug. This type of backup does not delete files so if I accidentally delete a file and I don't notice it right away I can still recover it from my backup server.

But it is also not so great. Because if I want to restore an active data set I want to restore all the files and none of the deleted files so I have the exact same data set that I lost.

The other thing not so great about my rsync data server is if I make a bad edit to a file and I don't notice it until tomorrow I then have two copies of the file with the bad edit and no copies the way the file was before I messed it up.

The solution to this problem is called versioning. A backup system that keeps older versions of the file as well as the current version. Computer geeks have been working this problem for a while and they are able to keep many versions of a file without using excessive disk space by keeping only the changed parts in what are called diff files. Computer programmers rely on versioning because computer programs are easy to break and sometimes a programmer needs to find the code that was in the program three versions back.

The most popular versioning program for computer programs is called git and was written by Linus Torvalds, the original author and maintainer of the Linux kernel. git can be used for other projects that require versioning as well.

I am installing a software called Restic on another backup server. This server will have mirrored drives in what is called RAID 1 so every bit will be written to two drives. Restic will handle both the exact mirroring of active data sets and the versioning. Perfect for active data sets.

Which is another thing about backups. As your projects change your backup needs change. So besides monitoring your backups to make sure they are working good and that you have plenty of disk space sometimes you have to reevaluate your backup needs and change or add to what you are already doing.

A moving target. Complicated. And tricky.

So, first line of defense. Include backups in your workflow.

After I perform a twitch stream there are two copies of the stream. One on the twitch website and one on the hard drive of the computer in my twitch studio. The first thing I do is create the folder for video post production on my primary work computer and then I copy the video file from my computer in my twitch studio onto my primary work computer. This is where I am going to do my video post production, where I have Openshot, VLC, GIMP, and other tools installed. So no matter how bad a mistake I make while extracting my videos from this file I do not mess up the original video file. I am working with a backup copy. As part of my workflow I make a backup copy. It's the first thing I do. And I never forget to do it or find out to late that my automated backup system jammed and didn't back it up.

If you only have one system, install another hard drive for your post production work so that you will have two copies of your original file on two different hard drives. So, your backup is integrated into your workflow and that drives equipment purchase. See how quickly we get back to the fun stuff.

Up above I talked about my optical backups for my Something Blue shows and I mentioned three audio CDs. My show is an hour long and the station needs it delivered in two parts so they can include a station break at the half hour. So I write Part 1 to a CD and I write Part 2 to another CD. I used to carry these CDs to the station but now I use Exact Audio Copy to turn each CD into a single mp3 file and I deliver these files to the station on the internet.

Then I create a CD with the whole show. I rip it with Exact Audio Copy to a single mp3 file that I upload to MixCloud. MixCloud has widgets so I can then embed the show on the Something Blue website, sbblues.com, or include it anywhere that I can post embeds. I also use this copy for syndication.

So these three CDs are audio backups of my finished product and they are made as part of the workflow. I also make three 29 second spots for KASU to air and to help promote the show on the internet. And I make my From The Archives Of Something Blue podcast that airs on Arkansas Roots on Wednesdays and Saturdays and that I also post to my funkwhale, my hairylarry.rocks blog, and to the Something Blue website.

There are, again, additional assets, a picture to promote the show and a picture to promote the podcast as well as the text files with all my spoken parts.

So after I'm done with all that and the show is done and uploaded and the podcast and promo spots are uploaded I make an optical backup of the folder to a CD or DVD. From this backup I could recreate the show or even change it if necessary, even if I lost the hard drive with the shows data.

And that brings me to synchronization, the third strategy. I have three systems with all the programs installed necessary to produce Something Blue. My main workstation, my office workstation, and our photo server. Network shares are great but they are not as quick and easy as working from the local hard drive so I use a program called SyncThing that works on Linux and Windows to synchronize my somethingblue folders on all three systems. So every time I make a change to a file or add a file it is automatically updated on three different systems. This is easy to set up and check, works in the background, and adds to my convenience as well as providing backup copies of my changes.

If I accidentally delete a file, synchronization will delete the file in all synchronized folders, so like all the other backup strategies discussed there are advantages and disadvantages. I think synchronization is best used along with some other file backup strategy. Since I installed SyncThing they have added versioning so If it works for you this should solve the problem of accidental deletions.

And the final strategy is cloud backup. There are companies, like Carbonite, that handle your backups for you over the internet. This is a one stop solution that handles file backups with versioning. There is a per computer monthly fee on their personal accounts that is not high for what they provide but if you are in a multi computer shop, like mine, these fees may add up. They also rely on your bandwidth instead of local hardware. So if you've got plenty of bandwidth, like most twitch streamers, and you have only one or two computers I recommend that you try them out. My brother works from a single laptop and uses Carbonite for his only backup strategy and he has recovered lost or damaged files with it. He also likes the fact that when he upgrades his computer all he has to do is install Carbonite and then let his computer churn away for a day or two while carbonite restores all of his work files in the correct folders and it's just like he's sitting down at his old computer, except faster.

So we have covered four strategies, system backup, file backup, synchronization, and cloud backup. The first three take work to setup and maintain. If cloud backup works for you it is the simplest solution. So if you do your production work on a single computer and you have good bandwidth start there.

If the cloud doesn't work for you start with optical backups of your production folders as part of your workflow. If you have an older computer it will work fine as a backup server using rsync or a file transer program with a GUI to backup your home folders daily. You will probably need to buy a hard drive. I buy 4TB HGST drives on ebay for about $65. It doesn't really matter if your backup drives are fast as long as they are reliable. So spend an extra few dollars for new drives even though I have had good luck with used HGST drives too.

And make sure that you don't have to spend too much time on your backups or they won't get done. Integrate manual backups to optical discs into your workflow and automate everything else.

After all, we're not here to make backups. We're here to create! Just don't forget that when it comes to computers failure is not if but when and make sure your backup strategies will allow you to recover your precious work.

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we are talking about books and stories. The opening topic will be The Origins Of Fantasy. Fantasy is the well spring that D&D grew out of. Do fantasy stories predate civilization? Or is there an era in literature when fantasy was born?

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info go here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Last week Ari and Caper worked on Caper's Song Book. And we started on a list of songs for the book. Then we wrote this.

Song of perception

tin tin aree tin tin aroo
look about look about could be you
jump about jump about one and two
tin tin aree tin tin aroo

To be sung by the whole party twice through to increases alertness and perception.

Here's a link to my post about Caper's Song Book.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/798

Carl Heyl linked to the Conan Artbook Kickstarter from the Troll Lords!

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4186

I added a chapter to my book in progress, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Using Tech Creatively. The new chapter is about Web Promotion.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/801

What have you been reading? Join us tonight on Inspired Unreality and let us know. What have you been writing? Post a link. Do you use tech creatively? Comment on my post.

Please share this newsletter with your gaming friends.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

The problem with promoting your art on the web is that the internet is a bottomless bucket that will swallow whatever amount of promotion you can throw at it in an attempt to make you spend all your time on web promotion and no time making art.

But I can't do that! I have a performance schedule and I have a production schedule and they take time.

What works for me is flowing out of performance into production and then into promotion as an integrated workflow. My performance takes production realities into account. The production work keeps the promotion in mind. And the promotion is designed to be easy to do. Because, believe me, you can spend endless hours typing descriptions into text boxes and it will keep you up all night if you let it.

So, health first.

And to explain further, when I wrote "My performance takes production realities into account." I meant, I really don't want to start the song with poorly played music so if I muffed it the first time around maybe I ought to play it again. And I mean that I work to keep my intros and outtros clean and editable so they don't give me a problem when I'm trimming that clip.

And for you it means something different, depending on your project. But whatever your project there will always be preparation, performance, and production cycles and thinking of prep and performance in terms of production helps you streamline your production workflow.

And tailoring your production to your promotion will also make your posting easier and better. Write your text so that it can be pasted into the description field of any social network and make sense. It should include all the links to your homepages where you initially upload and where information about you and your projects can be found. It should include license info so everyone knows when it's ok to share and what is not ok.

Video is great because it comes with it's own still, the paused video, but not all projects are video and not all websites handle video well so it's a good idea to prepare screen captures or other still photos as assets to help you with your promotion. I do one screen capture for each performance date and then I scale that same image down to web friendly sizes, in the hundreds of pixels high and wide instead of in the thousands.

I think of my servers as the trunk of the tree and posts to Youtube and other social networks as leaves that reveal a little bit about the tree and provide links to the trunk where everything is happening.

So the trunk of my tree is on two different servers, one of them sitting here to my right, as I type, running Yunohost web server software and peertube video sharing software. The other is the Live Music Archive at archive.org, the Internet Library. So two servers, one directly under my control and the other a library web service dedicated to preserving live music performances. That works for me.

The trunk of your tree may be anchor.fm and Youtube. It doesn't have to be your own server. It could be a free blog at wordpress.com and an account at Etsy. It depends on you and your project and your desires and requirements.

When the work is finished and ready to distribute post it to your trunk or your servers first. This should be part of your production workflow making the content available while you prepare your promotional text and other assets that go with each production.

So I post to the Live Music Archive first, audio and then video. By the time the video is uploaded, which can take a long time, the audio item is ready for some metadata tweaks so the mp3 versions of the songs carry the correct info right in the file.

Then I upload to peertube. My goal here is a playlist so part of my production workflow includes numbering the sets in order. I upload to peertube in performance order and create the playlist at the same time so it will also be in performance order. I add the link to the playlist into the text description. I also add the link to this peertube video to the text because this is the same text I will use everywhere and I want it to link back to me. That is to peertube.hairylarry.rocks.

Uploading to peertube goes really fast because I'm uploading to my own server right in my house. So the bits really fly across the LAN going possibly as far as my ISP and back but no farther.

I also have a nextcloud file backup and sharing service installed on my other server at the hairylarryland.com domain. I upload all of my assets, audio, video, screenshots, and text to a dated folder there. But it's not really part of the trunk because I don't build my promotion from there. It's more like a backup server than a promotional website.

Backing up all my files to the nextcloud server is also part of my production and promotion workflow. If you do your backups as a separate job sometimes they won't get done. Integrate your backups into your workflow where they are another important part of the whole process. Don't think of them as a separate chore.

I use a star system. 1 star means good enough for video production. 3 stars marks a song for extra promotion. So, if I have a three star song in the performance I upload it to Youtube. Otherwise I usually upload the first song in the playlist.

And when I get to the description field I copy and paste the text I already have on peertube. This includes a link to the playlist and to the video on my peertube. It also includes a link to the nextcloud files so potential collaborators can download best quality video files without having to deal with the Youtube or peertube processing.

You see, I haven't done any web collaboration with other musicians playing over my piano trio tracks yet but it is already built into the production workflow and the promotion because it's something I would like to do in the future.

And then I post the Youtube page everywhere because everyone is familiar with Youtube and all the websites work with Youtube videos.

Facebook sucks. I don't use it. You really shouldn't use it. That's a rant for another article. There are a large number of your fans that only use facebook and they never go anywhere else. There are a large number of your fans, like me, who never use facebook because facebook sucks.

So I post to facebook. From an earlier era I have a Hairy Larry facebook and I have a Delta Boogie facebook. When I'm done posting to Youtube they have a nice share screen which allows me to share my videos on facebook without actually going on facebook. So I post to Hairy Larry and then I post to a friends timeline to get Delta Boogie and I try to get out of there without any of the facebook stuff rubbing off on me.

I also use the Youtube share screen to post to the @hairylarryland twitter.

I also have a Friendica instance that puts me in the Mastodon Fediverse and I post the Youtube there because I have trouble embedding the peertube on Friendica. This shouldn't be the way it is because both peertube and Friendica reside in the same share space and can actually share messages with each other. So, when doing your promotion let pragmatism rule and do what works so you can get it done because you can also spend all night dealing with the intricacies of peer to peer social networks. Which you should do, if that's your thing. But I'm warning you, it's hard. Like Calculus. You have to learn how to think in a different way.

You also want to hope that you get all this done before your next scheduled performance. Because after you go through another production cycle and you have new work to promote you should spend your time promoting that.

A bard's songbook is like a magician's spell book in that it contains words of power, songs for wind, songs for rain, songs to make the fire burn hotter and warm the room, songs of companionship to warm the heart.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/797

Ari and Caper worked on Caper's Song Book last night on Inspired Unreality.

First we worked on a list of songs.

Song to make people dance
Song to make people alert
Song to make people like me AKA the opening numbers
Song of reflection

Song of hope

We renamed Song to make people alert to

Song of perception
tin tin aree tin tin aroo
look about look about could be you
jump about jump about one and two
tin tin aree tin tin aroo

and we wrote the lyric.

To be sung by the whole party twice through to increases alertness and perception.

The bard leads the song. The party sings it twice around. Just that helps. Some DMs may give pluses or advantage on perception and other pertinent rolls.

We had a great time and I look forward to filling in more blank pages in Caper's Song Book in the future.

Next week, Monday, August 2, is the first Monday of the month and we will be discussing Fantasy and Science Fiction literature.

A bard's songbook is like a magician's spell book in that it contains words of power, songs for wind, songs for rain, songs to make the fire burn hotter and warm the room, songs of companionship to warm the heart.

I'm reading "The Broken Sword" by Poul Anderson. As they set sail to the frozen north he writes this.

"Let us away," said Mananaan. He and Skafloc stepped into the boat from the small dock and raised the glowing sail. The man took the steering oar while the godling struck a chord on his harp and sang:

  Wind I call you, old, unresting,
  from the deeps of sea and sky.
  Blow me outward on my questing,
  answer me with eager cry.
  From the hills of home behind you,
  out through shifting leagues of sea,
  blow wind blow! My song shall bind you.
  South wind, sea wind, come to me.
  Come to set my vessel free.

At his music, a strong breeze sprang up and the boat surged forth into waves of cold and green that threw salt spray onto their lips.

 - Poul Anderson, from "The Broken Sword"

I'm working on a song book for Caper. A song for wind, a song for rain, a song of warmth, a song of companionship, a song to give you courage.

If you have suggestions for Caper's book please leave them in the comments. Or if you have favorite bardsongs from fantasy literature or gaming point the way.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/796

Or join us tonight at Inspired Unreality as Ari and Caper work on Caper's song book. Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night in the Gamer+ chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Monday week will be August 2, the first Monday in August so we will be talking about fantasy and science fiction stories. If you enjoy great fantasy literature like "The Broken Sword" please join us. And join us tonight to help Caper fill his song book.

I was talking to Carl about the witch's chicken scratch that we are inventing to fill Ari's teas and potions book that Tude found and he come up with the perfect name. Wikkenscratch. As in, "He held the book sideways and upside down but it didn't help. Scratching his head he complained, 'I can't read this wikkenscratch'."

And Megan helped me come up with a subtitle for my new book. "Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Using Tech Creatively". The subtitle hints that the book is actually more than a twitch how to. In fact, the book will apply to almost any creative endeavor where technology is part of the picture.

Robert S. Conley posted a blog, "The one I write about the popularity of RPGs and the explosive growth of digital sales. Using numbers from DriveThruRPG."

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4176

So do you have a new blog post, vlog, or podcast about gaming? Let me know.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

A bard's songbook is like a magician's spell book in that it contains words of power, songs for wind, songs for rain, songs to make the fire burn hotter and warm the room, songs of companionship to warm the heart.

I'm reading "The Broken Sword" by Poul Anderson. As they set sail to the frozen north he writes this.

"Let us away," said Mananaan. He and Skafloc stepped into the boat from the small dock and raised the glowing sail. The man took the steering oar while the godling struck a chord on his harp and sang:

  Wind I call you, old, unresting,
  from the deeps of sea and sky.
  Blow me outward on my questing,
  answer me with eager cry.
  From the hills of home behind you,
  out through shifting leagues of sea,
  blow wind blow! My song shall bind you.
  South wind, sea wind, come to me.
  Come to set my vessel free.

At his music, a strong breeze sprang up and the boat surged forth into waves of cold and green that threw salt spray onto their lips.

 - Poul Anderson, from "The Broken Sword"

I'm working on a song book for Caper. A song for wind, a song for rain, a song of warmth, a song of companionship, a song to give you courage.

If you have suggestions for Caper's book please leave them in the comments. Or if you have favorite bardsongs from fantasy literature or gaming point the way.

As another famous bard sang in another era,

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind.

The answer is blowing in the wind.

 - B.Z.

Ari, Caper, and the Milyagon witch have been decyphring teas and potions from a book written in Witch's Chicken Scratch. They have been gathering their knowledge into an herbal listing medicinal herbs and teas found around Milyagon including magical plants found in Wilken Woods, a magic forest with fey inhabitants. Here's a start.

mint - refeshing tea good for stomach discomfort

rose hips - also good in tea with charismatic properties

rose buds - used in love potions

lavender - used in teas and creams, helps with sleep, skin, and pain

chax - used in teas and potions, good for muscle aches and relaxing

yaloleaf - used in teas and potions, good for congestion and head colds

yellow flax - used for pain, swelling, and as an appetite suppressant

red vermilion - a poison used in red paint for artists

sweet lemon - used in teas for flavor and stomach distress

panacea - a red berry growing on cliff walls, good for healing and nausea

nightmare - a dangerous herb that can cause hallucinations in battle

sleep seed - in a tea acts like a sleep spell

babble plant - in a tincture with alcohol makes you talkative

scratch grass - grows in great fields and causes itching, untreated it can cause damage

mushrooms harvested in the moonlight under the ancestor tree, used in a cream for the ogres bunions
lard - base for burn medicine
honey drop sap from the honey drop tree, The honey drop tree is called that because it exudes a golden sap, it is a good base for skin medicines
scarlet pimpernel - field of brilliant red flowers with an odor that makes you want to turn and run, boil in water and strain keeping the water to thicken and sweeten teas and potions, used for pain relief and nausea
opium  flowers - powerful pain relief, addictive
willow bark - used like aspirin for pain relief
cloves - used in teas an potions for nausea, colds, and pain
mead, wine, whiskey have their traditional medical uses

To be continued with Caper's help

mushrooms

smoking herbs

That is the herbal so far. Although some of the Milyagon herbs have real life equivalents most are just made out of whole cloth and the Milyagon Herbal should never be used for actual ailments.

Continuing with this project I plan on adding more recipes to Ari's book written in Witch's Chicken Scratch.

Welcome to Inspired Unreality. Well, come to Inspired Unreality. Anyway, see you there.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been already here's an invite.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I'm not sure but I think Ari and the Milyagon witch may have some help from the brownies fixing up their teas and potions. I've been working on my Witch's Chicken Scratch and there could be some decoding at hand.

I enjoyed Follow Me And Die's blog post about "Just in time for tomorrow's 12th anniversary of my blog, I wrote an article about Garage Con." This is a great idea and an interesting read.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4170

Adjacent posts from Hairy Larry about a busy day.

No game tonight so I'm going to have to work on something. First backup/media/intraweb server. Second Setting Up A Twitch Studio series about technical creative endeavors.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4168

I also have a DIY project to write up and videoize. How to build a usb foot switch to change scenes in Streamlabs OBS or other programs that use programmable hotkeys.

Plus now reading Poul Anderson's "The Broken Sword", his first fantasy novel.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4169

What are you reading? What's your favorite DIY? And as far as potions and teas?

Stay in touch.

Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us tonight at Inspired Unreality open game chat. Last week we talked about books. Before that Witch's Chicken Scratch, a cypher witches use to write down their recipes for teas and potions. And when we last left Ari and Caper they were in the Milyagon Witch's kitchen drinking love potion. The night before that the brownies had crowned Ari with a flowery garland.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been we have an invite for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

What will we be discussing tonight? Nobody knows. Because, like Megan, we do what we want. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

I posted, "We had a good chat last night about Science Fiction and Fantasy literature starting with a discussion about Science Fiction as a late nineteenth and twentieth century phenomenon where Fantasy literature encompasses all of literature going back to the earliest written words. Now they are often indistinguishable. Then we discussed the dystopian trend in Science Fiction. The Golden Age (thirties and forties) saw mostly optimistic science fiction stories but in the second half of the twentieth century starting with the New Wave through today there has been a darker trend with many dystopian and post apocalyptic stories. Then closing the chat we each discussed our first experiences in Science Fiction."

What are your first experiences with Fantasy and Science Fiction? Join the discussion here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4153

ZDL shared a post about how we can let the kids improve our urban landscape.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4157

If you have ideas for our Fantasy and Science Fiction discussion post them here in the Related To Geeks Book Club group.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/groups/28

Please post your links, game ideas, art, etc. to Gamer+. We want to know what you're doing. (Ok, that's not creepy at all.)

Stay in touch.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us tonight at the Inspired Unreality Open Game Chat where we will discuss Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. Soon to be a monthly feature at Inspired Unreality.

We've already got some discussion going in my announcement thread.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4145

We don't mind controversy over at Gamer+. As long as it's controversy about gaming. Everybody's got their own old school. Mine didn't start until the early nineties. Most old schools are older than mine.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/782

I added another post to my Setting Up A Twitch Studio series. Documentation. I try to teach by example. So, if you like to read documentation.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/785

This series of articles has turned out to be broader in focus than I thought they would be and the ideas discussed pertain to any technical creative endeavor. I need to take a big top down view and decide where I'm going with this.

And here are our twitch streams.

https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Send me your links or post them to Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Like workflow documentation isn't sexy. But also like workflow documentation is very important in any technical creative endeavor. Instead of waxing on about the joy of documentation I will include my Post Production and Upload document. Then at the end of the post I will address a few issues that the document raises.

HairyLarryLand Twitch Videos
Post Production And Upload Document
---
Log the show noting the songs in order.
Include song title, start time, end time, and other notes.
Star songs for video production. Three stars for extra promotion.
The show is logged from the twitch website so I am also doing quality control on the stream.

Produce videos of the starred songs in Openshot.
The assets are Title, Credits, and one or two clips.
Load a previously edited video as a starting point.
Save all the videos and the hard drive source recording in a dated folder, YYYY-MM-DD.
Videos are saved as song_name-YYYY-MM-DD.

https://www.openshot.org/

After rendering each video I do a full viewing for pre upload quality control. I have found problems but even when there are no real problems I benefit educationally by another close viewing of my best performances.

Rename the videos adding NN_ as a prefix numbering the videos in playlist order. The playlist of all the videos produced for a certain date is a document of my performance on the twitch stream.

Take a screen shot from the first video and save it in the same folder as the videos. This is for promotion on the Live Music Archive and anywhere a photo is needed.

Use VLC to create mp3 audio files of each video.
This is done as a batch using Open Multiple Files and Convert.
Rename the mp3 files artist-album_title-NN_song_title where the album title is the date performed.
I do this using Thunar bulk rename which makes it easy.
Normalize the mp3 files with MP3DirectCut.

https://www.videolan.org/

https://mpesch3.de/

Make the song list in list.txt.
I do this by executing ls 0*.mp4 > list.txt in a bash shell and then editing the file with two search and replaces and manual editing when needed.

Make the notes.txt file for the Live Music Archive upload.
Copy the last show's notes.txt to the current folder and edit it changing the date and the playlist.

I now have all the assets ready for my file uploads.

Upload the mp3 files, notes.txt and the screenshot to the Live Music Archive.
The item ID is hlYYYY-MM-DD because this is recommended. Then the link will be like archive.org/details/hl2012-06-29.

Add the songs to my KGPL on demand internet radio station, HairyLarryLand Livestreams, at kgpl.org. I use a program I wrote to make it easy to add an entire concert. I also wrote KGPL and KGPL is GPL.

https://kgpl.org/

Upload the mp4 files and notes.txt to another item on the live music archive.
I use hlYYYY-MM-DD.video for my video link.

The mp3 files upload fast. The mp4 videos take longer.

At peertube.hairylarry.rocks create a playlist for the performance.
The playlist is called twitch.tv/hairylarryland June 27, 2021 with the date corrected.

Upload the videos to peertube one at a time.
I use a song.txt template for the song information so I only have to correct the date and then search and replace on the song title for each song.
I always add tags to peertube and the Live Music Archive. jazz, blues, piano, hairylarryland, twitch, livestream, etc.
After the video is uploaded add the link to the description and add the song to the playlist.
After all the songs are uploaded check the playlist

https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/

Create a folder on the HairyLarryLand Nextcloud for the performance date.

Add the mp3 files and mp4 files to Nextcloud for download by collaborators and others. Also upload notes.txt and the screenshot. I can share these files by sending a link and I also include the link in the peertube descriptions. Create a markdown text file for each mp4 file and copy and paste the peertube description to that file.

https://hairylarryland.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/Z9RFW4QS6XGa3qo

All of this seems like a lot but it actually goes pretty fast and much of the time consuming part is unattended. Start the upload. After it's done do the next thing. I manage to keep up and I do three livestreams a week for 4-5 hours of video content total. I have streamlined this workflow to make this possible.

Promote the songs on Youtube, the fediverse, other social networks, websites, and blogs using the song links, playlist links, and download links.


Additional notes, issues not part of but raised by the procedure above.
---
Licensing - I license my songs Creative Commons Attribution which means anyone can use my songs in their projects as long as they include me in the credits. That's just me. It's what I do. Make stuff and give it away. When you make your decision about licensing I suggest you read through the information provided at the Creative Commons website. All Rights Reserved may not be the best choice for you.

https://creativecommons.org/

Live Music Archive - I perform livestream concerts so the Live Music Archive works for me. If you are doing game streams, actual play, vlogs, cooking, or DIY archive.org also has a Community Video area which would probably be better for you. The Internet Archive is a library. Their service is free. They have embed code so you can share easily. They encourage sharing items on their site on other websites. All around double plus good.

https://archive.org/details/etree

https://archive.org/details/opensource_movies

Servers - Ok, I'm a computer geek. I did games and music before computers but computers were my career and they remain my hobby. I realize not everyone runs their own internet servers. So I recommend using archive.org as your primary server and then using Youtube and Tumblr or other web platforms for your daily updates and your pretty face. I also recommend the fediverse, programs like Mastodon, Friendica, Funkwhale, and Peertube. With these programs you can set up your own server but you don't have to. There are many fediverse instances with an existing lean to your area of interest that would be glad to have you participate.

If you want to run your own server I use two. The first is based on the famous LAMP stack, linux, apache, mysql, php. The second runs Yunohost.

https://yunohost.org/#/

Google lamp stack.

Best of luck in all your creatives endeavors.

Tonight! On Inspired Unreality. We will be chatting about games, or playing games, or maybe chatting about books, science fiction and fantasy literature. What we've read and what we like. Books. Games. Chat.

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been there's an invite here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

ZDL posted Deep Dive: OSR Critique about her actual experience in the OSR world when it was just called D&D.

"To establish my credentials, I have been playing RPGs of all kinds since 1977.  My first exposure to the genre was the 1977 "Blue Book" edition and I have backfilled experience with the original books, not to mention gone forward into both branches of D&D (Advanced and what would later become the Cyclopedia).  I played through the explosion of creativity in the '80s, witnessed the rise of story games (playing many of them, though not the White Wolf line of Storyteller games—I hated those), and continued through to the present day where I play intensely story-oriented games (FATE, Spark, Mythic, etc.) as well as some OSR or OSR-alike games (most notably Mazes & Minotaurs).  I am emphatically not a young-un telling grandpa what's what.  I'm one of the grandparents saying what actually was."

And she has some opinions. As always, a good read. In case you also have opinions there's a comment section.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/782

RickStump joined the Related to Geeks Book club group. Megan and I did the podcast for a year and then went on to bigger and better things. (Hello Flunking The Written and twitch) I still read every day and would love to have a monthly book discussion. So, starting next week and continuing the first Monday of every month the opening topic at Inspired Unreality will be science fiction and fantasy literature with frequent forays into SF&F movies and games.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/groups/28
https://anchor.fm/flunking-the-written
https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia
https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

I posted a new photo gallery, The Masks Of The Zuni. If you are needing images of a witch doctor, shaman, or other all around weirdo these are public domain. There's even a bizarro Hairy Larry.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/104

See you tonight on Inspired Unreality open game chat. Next week, books. Post some pics. Join in on the OSR discussion. At Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us tonight on Inspired Unreality open game chat. The opening topic is Mixed Parties, that is parties where the PCs are at different levels. This was baked into OSR games, back when sometimes the monsters killed the PCs and when different classes took more or less XP to level up. Also you can bring your own topic. Open game chat. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been we have an invitation for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

There is an ongoing discussion thread on this topic at Gamer+. This will be the starting point for Inspired Unreality tonight.

Draklorx wrote "I think this is a cool aspect of old school games that isn't common anymore. I love the grittiness of it, and the mixed levels never bothered me when I played. ... That said, for a dungeon master it's much easier to do milestone leveling and have all the players be the same level."

ZDL wrote, "There are several aspects of old school games I like, most notably the increased diversity that randomness tended to cause.

The wildly divergent capabilities of characters, however, was not one of them. In the presence of most GMs, having the weakest character meant a) dying, or b) not having anything to do. Neither of these is really conducive to enjoyment."

hairylarry wrote "And then there's the whole non combat side. The role playing, puzzle solving, exploration part where characters of all levels are more equal and the results depend more on the player than on PC stats."

hairylarry wrote "There is a built in premise in OSR games. PCs need XP to level up. You get XP by killing monsters. So, let's go kill some monsters. At a lot of tables that is the game. To me, it's a side show and as I get older I run more games that are all exploration and role play without any combat at all."

CarlHeyl wrote, "I'd like to add that in the oldest of old school most of your XP came from earning treasure not killing monsters. Which means two things 1. You don't have to fight that big bad monster if there was a way around it to get the treasure behind it. and 2. Your lower level character would level very rapidly because of the amount of gold the higher level party was able to procure."

If this interests you there's more here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4131

Worldbuilding Magazine is proud to present our June 2021 issue: Cosmology. We’ve taken a step back from our usual in-depth look at the details of worldbuilding and this time we’re talking about the cosmos.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4133

I hope to see you tonight on Inspired Unreality to hear you opinions about mixed parties. Or you can log on to Gamer+ and share your thoughts.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

My stream schedule has been changed. Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00 PM Central. Sunday at 5:00 PM Central. Some Sundays my band, Bebop Beatniks, will be streaming from the porch.

If you are producing videos from your twitch streams like I talked about in the last article most streamers post to Youtube. I have an active Youtube channel and I do post there but it's actually the 4th place I post and Youtube won't see every video.

It's important to have a posting strategy and a procedure that makes posting easy. I use a notes.txt file in a dated folder for the stream performed on that date. This notes.txt file is very much the same for every show. The playlist is changed. The date is changed, and occasionally comments are added. So I work from a template modifying it as necessary for each stream.

I also have a template for posting songs. Again I only change the date, the song title, and add an occasional comment.

So, for me, playlists are important. I deal in sets of short videos that are related, in my case all performed on the same day. So if you're going to produce highlights videos from your game stream you may want to put them in a playlist so viewers can go through all of them easily.

And here's where it gets kind of geeky. The first place I post my videos is to my own servers.

Most people don't run web servers at home so this probably won't apply to you but it is an option every production studio should consider because uploads to in house servers don't take nearly as long as uploads to The Live Music Archive or Youtube.

On my right I have the Hairy Larry Rocks server hosting my peertube.

https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks

On my left I have my MixRemix server that also hosts HairyLarryLand.

https://hairylarryland.com

Let's say I played a stream and then I produced 4 song videos from the stream.

I number the songs based on their order in the set as logged in my logbook.

I create a playlist for the stream.

I upload each video to my peertube using the songs.txt template so I don't have to do a lot of typing. After it's posted I add the link to the video into the text and I add the video to the playlist.

This goes really fast because these large mp4 files never leave the house. Nevertheless, as soon as I am done the songs are available on the internet and I can click a share button to link or embed the videos.

On my HairyLarryLand server I have a file sharing program called NextCloud. After I have finished uploading to peertube I create a folder for the stream and upload all the video files to NextCloud. Then I create a text file for each song and copy the exact same text I used for the songs on peertube. When that is done all of my highest quality video files are available for download here.

https://hairylarryland.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/Z9RFW4QS6XGa3qo

Why both?

The peertube interface is user friendly making it easy for viewers to find and share videos. It is even possible for other peertube instances to include my songs for people to enjoy from there.

The NextCloud interface is a file manager where you can download the best quality videos as rendered by OpenShot. So if someone wants to collaborate with me or just wants to download best quality that's the place to go.

The song.txt template cross links both of these sites so it is easy to switch between interfaces from a Youtube like federated social network to an all business file manager for downloading what you want.

In the next article I will discuss uploading videos to the Live Music Archive and Youtube. I am also uploading mp3 files of the audio to the Live Music Archive and  I plan on making them available on my on demand KGPL internet radio station.

|xvx^/x\
\os Hx/s
\os \u/s
^x^+

Tonight! On Inspired Unreality Ari and the Milyagon witch continue researching the potion book that Ari's cat Tude found near the witch's garden. So far they have tested a brew that enables far sighted telescopic vision. When stirred with the silver wand King Groads sent to the witch they also enabled microscopic vision. A kind of a scrying tea with a twist. They have decrypted another recipe that may be a love potion.

Join us on Inspired Unreality tonight to test a love potion or just to chat about gaming. Everyone is welcome. All gaming is on topic.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms every Monday night at 9:00 at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been we have an invite for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Every gamer knows about thieve's cant, words and symbols only thieves know. Inspired by Ari's book discovered on Inspired Unreality I am working on Witch's Chicken Scratch, a kind of shorthand that witch's in the past used to record the exact ingredients in their teas and potions. Since they knew their ingredients and how they blended them together all they needed was a short list to remind them exactly what they used.

Silent letters ignored, past witch's scrawled geometric figures in neat rows as a way of remembering their recipes while at the same time concealing them from prying eyes. Witches do love their secrets.

Ari and the Milyagon witch have deciphered two recipes so far. One is at the top of the page. Here are the witch's notes that she made while reseaching the book.

m = ^
n = ^
v = v
t = +
l = |
r = \
d = /
o = o
u = u
w = w
other vowels = x

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4126

See if you can decipher the recipe at the top of this newsletter.

Maybe it's a mood elevator.
Or maybe it's a love potion.

Join us tonight and maybe we'll find out.

After drinking this Tea of Prescience I can see another Milyagon minizine in the future, "Tea Recipes In Witch's Chicken Scratch".

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

I've been working on the chicken scratch for Ari's book of teas and potions.

m = ^
n = ^
v = v
t = +
l = |
r = \

d = /

o = o

u = u

w = w

other vowels = x

So

mint = ^x^+
lemon = |x^o^
lavender = |xvx^/x\

So it's just a substitution code but all the marks are very easy to write and, coincidentally, easy to type.

Join us tonight on Inspired Unreality open game chat. Will Ari and Caper explore new tea blends? Will the witch learn more about the silver wand King Groads gave her? Or will we just chat about games and gaming? Nobody knows??? Because we're winging it!

Inspired Unreality is held at 9:00 PM Central every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invite for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

I posted another article about Setting Up A Twitch Studio where I discuss workflow. In any job workflow is important. In video production a streamlined workflow is essential. I know workflow sounds boring and wonky but it's not. This may be the most important article in the series.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/post/775

Gamer+ Gamers Do Stuff

Peter_R posted Troika Cards! Woo Hoo! to his Solo Roleplaying & Game Mastery blog.

https://www.ppmgames.co.uk/2021/02/09/troika-cards-woo-hoo

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/Peter_R

TheEvilDM posted another episode to his actual play podcast, The World of Arkonis Episode 51 – Evil Lair 3, is this the one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZrFFLGH4M

https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/TheEvilDM

If you're doing stuff let me know. I want to add your stuff to Gamer+ News.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry

hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc

hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
 

Everyone wants to buy equipment but nobody wants to think about workflow. Yet, without a well defined idea about anticipated workflow it's difficult to even know what equipment to buy.

One of the advantages of livestreaming is simplified workflow. For instance.

Prepare for the stream.

Do the stream performance.

Check your stats.

Twitch keeps your streams online and it's possible to download them if there's one you want to save. I press the record button in Streamlabs OBS and record everything. So I need big hard drives, video eats disk space. This is how workflow drives equipment purchases.

My workflow is more complicated because my livestream is also a video production environment. I am livestreaming my shows. But I am also producing song videos of me playing my original songs. This is where workflow is most important.

Because there's this thing about video production. It's time consuming. So if you're going to do a lot of video production it's important to simplify your workflow or you end up bogged down in post production. This leads to the dreaded post production backlog where you are unable to keep up and end up with unwatched video footage that you worked to make but will never see the light of day.

The only way I know of to avoid post production backlog is to finish with post before you produce more video. When your performance is on a schedule, like mine, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 3:00 PM Central, you have to be able to zoom through post production and uploading your videos. There is only two or three days until the next performance.

So here's my workflow.

Pre Production

Write songs.

Create backing tracks.

Learn the songs well enough to practice them.

Production

Perform the stream which is livestreamed over twitch, recorded on twitch, and recorded on my hard drive.

Post Production

Log the show.

Create the song videos.

Upload the videos to my peertube instance for easy viewing and to my NextCloud  file sharing site for best quality downloads.

https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/video-channels/twitch/videos

https://hairylarryland.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/Z9RFW4QS6XGa3qo

Promotion

Share links to the songs on my blogs, websites, and social media.

Upload song videos to Youtube or other websites.

I will do an article on promotion later.

Now I want to discuss Post Production and just how I manage to produce a handful of song videos every two days.

I watch the whole show on twitch logging the songs start and end times and marking the songs that should be excerpted for song videos. I add other comments while logging. Most commonly I note where the song video should begin because I don't always hit the groove right from the top.

This takes a little bit longer than it took to play the stream. Producing the log is only part of the purpose here. I am also monitoring my stream quality as viewed on twitch and I am learning from my performance.

For editing my videos I use OpenShot because of ease of use.

I load the stream recorded to the hard drive into OpenShot and I do a rough cut of the songs beginning and end.

I zoom in and fix the cuts to exactly where i want them. I leave the spoken intros and outtros where possible.

I use templates for my title and credits screens changing only the song title. I add them to the video and I place the fades to go from title to video and from video to credits.

This goes really fast. While I still have the song loaded in the editor I do a quality control viewing. Sometimes I decide the song isn't really good enough to post. Sometimes I choose different edit points. Most of the time I am happy with the song and deem it ready to upload. So besides checking the song I am also doing another learning pass listening again to my best performances. So I play the song, log the song and select it for post production, and then I listen again for quality control. This repeated listening may be the most valuable part of my piano practice.

Sometimes I want to include the spoken intro and then start the song later in the performance. This takes only one extra cut. To avoid a jump cut I zoom in on the spoken part so it's just a video of me talking. Then when I start playing I'm back to full screen making a very natural transition. Here's an example.

Bunnies

https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/videos/watch/955242be-6dd2-45f9-b2cb-a09a49b15a1a

Here's a video from the same show without the zoomed in intro.

Eventually

https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/videos/watch/ebdd8dcb-cfde-413d-b7ec-fbbad81d6e9a

Today's Monday. My last stream was two hours on Saturday. I logged the stream Saturday night. Sunday I produced Something Blue and uploaded it to KASU. So today I get to produce eight song videos. I know I will be able to finish this today, no problem, because of my streamlined workflow.

Because tomorrow I'll be playing another show.

Tonight on Inspired Unreality join Ari and Caper in their quest for mushrooms and tea. At least that's what we did last week when Ari's cat, Tude, found a book, Ari and the witch deciphered a tea blend from one of the pages in the book, Caper went to the woods to hunt for mushrooms, the witch brewed the tea, and when Ari and the witch drank the tea they became far sighted and could see Caper leaving the woods several miles away as if they were looking through a powerful telescope. What will happen next? Nobody knows. Because we're winging it.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4113

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invitation for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Those who are Related To Geeks finally reconvened in person after over a year of getting together in Zoom and on Gather. At our Saturday family game we fought the giant ants that invaded Fair Day. On Sunday we restored a wizard who had been turned to stone. We also ate a lot and talked a lot and I played piano. Great weekend, especially that last part.

Follow Me And Die posted a new podcast, Episode 197 - Down the Rabbit Hole of UAPs/UFOs. "With the recent buzz over the release of some videos of various sensor data of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the new term for UFO, I decided to explore "What if...." and apply it to the realm of RPGs." He also posted a companion blog post.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4114

Saturday afternoon I had my family participate on my twitch stream. I set up on the front porch using all battery operated equipment, piano, PA, tablet, laptop, and a hotspot on my phone. There were some problems. The battery died on the laptop and I had to plug it in. Webcams are not good in daylight. I am working on these issues and will discuss them in a blog post, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Going Portable after I figure them out.

You are invited to join Ari and Caper tonight on Inspired Unreality. Please update us on your games and projects. My contact info is below or better yet post to Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality Ari and Caper continue winging it. They are back with the Milyagon witch drinking tea that she stirred with her new magic wand, a gift from King Groads who is not king of the fairies but remains king of his own domain. He also gave Ari and Caper gifts. Ari can always find medicinal herbs in the forest and can always tell which herbs are poison. Caper got the same gift except for mushrooms. Caper is convinced he got the better part of that bargain but we shall see.

Join Ari and Caper and Tude (Ari's cat) as their adventures unfold. What will happen next? Nobody knows. Cause we're winging it.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkars Tavern we have an invitation for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Here's a shout out to Follow Me And Die for 44 years of D&D. I've been playing for 30 years. How long have you been adventuring? Add your story to the comments here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4109

I added another post to my series, Setting Up A Twitch Studio. This week it's all about free software for streaming.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/768

After I finish these blogs Megan and I will have to get back together to compare notes on where twitch has taken us. What is your experience with twitch? We'll both be glad to compare notes with you too.

Here's our links.

https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Stay in touch.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Here's the good news for a change. The software needed to set up a twitch stream is free.

I am using Streamlabs OBS as my streaming platform. Before that I used OBS. These are both free software.  I used OBS recording audio only podcasts but for my twitch stream I wanted to view the live chat as part of the stream, and not just see the chat on the twitch interface. Streamlabs OBS supports that so that's how I get my live chat on the left side of the stream.

https://streamlabs.com/

To display my tablet playing iReal Pro on the right side of my stream I use scrcpy, also free software.

https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy

I had to download and install a windows driver for my Zoom H6. No charge for the driver and the install was painless. I use the Zoom as an interface between my PA and my computer.

I am planning on  implementing the ability to record multitrack to make it easier to collaborate with other musicians. Pro Tools First is a free download and Pro Tools is the industry standard for sharing audio files.

https://www.avid.com/pro-tools

I use Openshot for video post production. I like it. I even use their titling templates. It makes life easy.

https://www.openshot.org/

I am using VLC to monitor my videos. Under tools I can view the codec information to make sure I'm recording everything right. VLC will also compress your video files in case they end up too large.

https://www.videolan.org/

GIMP is my photo editor. Video producers need photo editors the same as anyone else.

https://www.gimp.org/

Some of this software is open source. Some is not. But it is all free to download and install. Which is good news because twitch can be an expensive hobby.

Next week I'll discuss workflow and backups. Can't wait.

Tonight, on Inspired Unreality we are keeping our options open. So bring your own topic to our open game chat or we might continue with actual play in Milyagon. We've been winging it and it's been fun!

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you are new to Tenkar's Tavern, a notorious drinking hole for OSR discussion, we have an invitation for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

Ari, Caper, and Tude survived Feyland after an exchange of gifts with King Groads. They are on Wilkin Way heading back toward Milyagon after their three fey friends helped them return. Tintee danced up a fairy circle that opened up into the rapids. Quin went through first and got all wet so when he came back Tintee danced up another fairy circle and this one went to the owl's eyrie just north of Wilkin Way. After feasting on the mushrooms Caper found (his gift was he would be lucky finding mushrooms in the woods) they said goodbye to Tintee, Quin, and Pantoo.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4099

I have added another post to my twitch series, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Equipment. Here's the link.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/764

Have you played Keep On The Borderlands? Of course you have. At the Save Or Die podcast they discuss B2 or not B2?

"The Keep on the Borderlands! The name alone evokes images of battling monsters in caverns and wilderness in the earlier days of Dungeons & Dragons. But is the module really all it’s cracked up to be! The Sodcast discusses the good, bad, and chaotic of the most famous basic module."

http://saveordie.info/?p=1990

Post you adventures on Gamer+. Everything takes equipment whether it's webcams or miniatures. Let us know about your recent equipment aquisitions.

And have you done any role playing on twitch? Just how does that work? I am very interested in this and would like to cover it on Inspired Unreality and in my twitch series.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

It's important to know the big idea for a twitch stream before talking about equipment. Different streams have different equipment needs from top to bottom.

A very common idea is the streamer playing games while they talk to their audience in a small window. This only needs one camera but it needs a really good computer or game console.

Another popular twitch topic is DIY that streams only live video. So the computer needs are less but this type of stream might benefit from multiple webcams providing multiple scenes. A scene is a single shot or several shots combined on a screen. DIY crafts streams often benefit from a top down view so that would be a scene but another scene showing the streamer talking to the audience might also be desirable.

So this is why it's important to work towards an idea when gathering equipment for your twitch stream.

Since I play piano on my stream I opted for a single scene made up of four elements, a shot of me playing, a top down shot of the piano keyboard, a window showing my tablet running iReal Pro for the chord change and backing track, and a window for the chat box.

I have a nice T420 laptop with an i7, 16 gig of ram, and an Nvidia card. I used it to test some of my ideas and it did fine streaming from the built in webcam but when I set up multiple windows with Streamlabs OBS the whole thing bogged so bad that it was unusable. I hope to use this laptop for field streaming but that is a work in progress that I will write about later exploring the idea of running a stream wherever you want using all battery operated equipment.

So, I needed a more powerful computer. I needed two webcams. My old tablet wouldn't work with scrcpy so I needed a newer tablet. And, as always with video production I needed lights. Fortunately I already have audio recording equipment. I am using my Zoom H6 for an audio interface and an Audio Technica AT4055 for my microphone. I also have tripods and mic stands but I do some carpentry DIY for stands as well.

Here's what I got.

On ebay I bought an HP Z640 Workstation, Xeon E5-2620 2.40GHz, 32GB, 1TB, NVIDIA Quadro K2200 Video, Windows 10. This cost around $325 with shipping and taxes. Since 1 TB is not enough disk storage for an extended video project I added 2 HGST 4 TB drives in a RAID 1 configuration using Win 10 Storage Spaces. These ran about $105.

To update my tablet I bought a 10.5 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab A SM-T597 32GB, Wi-Fi for about $100 used in excellent condition.

I bought two Audkey webcams for about $30 each.

And for lights I got two 8.5 inch clamp on utility lamps and daylight bulbs for about $20.

Really, that's it.

Computer --- $325

Hard Drives - $105

Tablet ------- $100

Webcams ---   $60

Lights -------   $20

                   -------

Total -------- $610

So my whole setup to implement my big idea costs less than a high end graphics card required for twitch game streams. At megantopia my daughter spent more than twice this amount for her gaming computer.

I'll continue this series next week. Future topics will include bandwidth, DIY, field streaming, post production, and more. Please ask any questions in the comments.

Also, please contact me if you use twitch to play RPGs. I am very interested in this.

Here's our links.

https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Tonight, on Inspired Unreality, we continue our quest into feyland.

Ari and Caper were joined by Droggin the dwarf and Quinthalas the elf on their quest into feyland. The Milyagon witch has a message for King Groads, who is only a king on his own property. We meet our friends the fairies from our previous quest to Wilkin Woods and they don't have much use for the pretend king. But we still get along with them fine and they do show us the way. We are standing outside his gate hoping to complete our quest and hurry back home. Feyland is nice ... but dangerous.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4093

Join us every Monday night at 9:00 Central for Inspired Unreality open game chat held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invitation for you here.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/index

ZDL has big news. "The greatest epic fantasy movie put to video has finally been released!" Baelin (Rowan Bettjeman), a simple background NPC in the video game, Skycraft, has been walking the same route for as long as he can remember.

https://archive.gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4094

I wrote a blog post about Setting Up A Twitch Studio - The Big Idea. "It's all Megan's fault. When she set up https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia Vivian and I started watching. Before that I knew it was a popular site for live gaming but twitch flew under my radar. Once I saw what Megan was doing and I started to understand how twitch worked, and how it can be used for videos that are not about gaming, I became interested."

https://archive.gamerplus.org/blogs/761

Are you on twitch? Have you watched a good video or read a book? Have you ever been to Feyland? Let us know on Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://archive.gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com