So I was at this awesome wedding this weekend, and I talked to a woman named Jane about The Wire.

It turns out that was Jane McGonigal, who appears to be quite famous in the ARG world.

Speaking of Hickman, I think my model is the original Ravenloft. Basically you got a (really cool) map and stat blocks for monsters. It lived or died based on what the DM and players brought to the table. If the DM really role-played Strahd, you could have some really interesting (occasionally nightmarish) fights.

Ah yes, Ravenloft. Good times, good times. I ran a few friends through the evil combined version of Ravenloft I & II a long time ago and the players' first encounter with Strahd was while they were holed up in the house of the woman the Count was after. There was a knock at the door, and player A answered it. The figure asked if he could come in, and the player said "sure". As one, all the other players turned and looked dumbstruck at player A who was like "What? We can totally take him in here! He's got nowhere to go!". Turns out Player A had never heard the folklore about vampires not being able to enter residences until they're invited. Yeah, he got call some choice names, all of them deserved.

They all survived that encounter - barely - but they didn't survive the adventure.

And then they made Ravenloft a different dimension, and it just became sad. So much more fun when it was a place you could get to in the "real" world, someplace you could stumble upon if you took the wrong turn on the road, all unawares . . .

Turns out Player A had never heard the folklore about vampires not being able to enter residences until they're invited.

Wait, what? How? Everyone knows that!

Turns out Player A had never heard the folklore about vampires not being able to enter residences until they're invited.

Did he fail his dumbass check or something?

huh. Doesn't that go all the way back to Bram Stoker?

huh. Doesn't that go all the way back to Bram Stoker?

Before Bram Stoker, IIRC. Of course, all my books that have that information are at home, not next to me here at work, so I can't say for sure.

Before Bram Stoker, IIRC.

IR the same way, and of course the power of thresholds and all kinds of warding and permissioning magic are common to a lot of monster myths across cultures and periods.

I'm being too lazy to actually look stuff up, but I can talk into this text box real nice!

Did he fail his dumbass check or something?

Precisely. This is the same asshat who screwed up a planned 24 hour marathon Traveller game at the 9th hour by deciding that the game must be over and calling in the cops and running with the money. I was one of the players in that game, and the only player, besides the asshat, to escape from the cops. Everyone else was dead.

Problem for the asshat was that my character hadn't trusted him since the beginning so he'd left a small bomb under the guy's bed which would only activate if the asshat's brainwaves were detected within two feet of it. The bomb would be remotely primed whenever I left the ship in case of a double-cross and of course that's exactly what the asshat did.

He got in the ship, escaped atmosphere, hit hyperspace and after several hours in the cockpit, headed to bed. The bomb detonated the moment his head hit the pillow.

Needless to say, when you explode in hyperspace, there isn't any debris left to find.

Asshat's facial expression was priceless.

BTW, Jilli, congratulations on your shiny post number. Who says we need a gaming thread anyway?