Coffee With The Princess!
The Journey Continues!

**Giggles!**

Over the weekend, the Saturday Night Tabletop Game Group finished up the arduous book five of "The Council of Thieves!" and I have slowly started reading the next book to prepare for the conclusion of this adventure path. There were a lot of the smaller maps that I had to copy and blow up nice and big so these old eyes could read better while I'm trying to juggle the gang there. Some have worked long hours during the day and others, like myself, have been taking it easy since we woke up, but all are fairly tired by the time we get started. The group has been really gracious towards me as the Dungeon Master while I work to relearn the details of Pathfinder and be a better judge to what happens in the game. The group various from as little as five players to a maximum of ten, which is fine either way. I do find myself reverting to my days of being a teacher to herd them about and keep them focused, but that's the job as any Game Master of the tabletop games will tell you.

Personally, I have had such a blast getting back into the routine of telling the story and keeping things moving. We have enough of the people who know all of the ins and outs of the system and it allows mw to have "teachable moments" of learning more of the details of the game and even looking up the smaller details of the rules. Now, there have been times where I had to make a hard judgement call, but I usually do that only to get the group back on track or keep the peace. We have a few high-powered personalities there and when they get aroused and annoyed, that's when I have to step in and bring some order.

Now, I'm known as "The Marshmallow Dungeon Master!" mainly because I don't screw the players as a general rule and usually they can count on having at least one helpful NPC who can be a blessing for the game. Sometimes it's one of my cast of characters, like Tana Kayla the Gunslinger-Sorceress for this current one or Israfel Vincent, who maybe more of a background character for this adventure known as "The Mummy's Mask!", but sometimes I get inspired like with Eros Lionheart, the blind knight of West Crown, who has provided safe haven and information for "The Unlucky Eight!"

While this has been my mainstay in having fun between weeks of work here at the Firm, I have been also getting back to role-playing online, which can be hit or miss. A lot of time, someone recognizes my characters that I'm logging in as, some are tickled into action because of the pornographic art, others are enchanted by how I treat them, which used to mystify me, but I think I understand it better these days. Most are painfully shy and want to role-play, but often get turned off for whatever the reason. Some don't deserve that sort of treatment, but somehow it happens. Some are clingy because they need or want the attention. While I have been there back in my earlier years of online gaming, I can also understand how the clash happens. To be fair, I have no easy solution to how to handle the situation, but the best advice I can suggest is get around the place, watch how people do things, and hopefully you will find people to hang out with.

The best example I can point out is Tapestries, a place I cut my teeth on and have been there for twenty-plus years as Caitlynn Wildfire, the super heroine known as the Mighty PlastiCat. These days though I'm often more around as Israfel Vincent, also known as Taffy by her friends and family. Go to the Plaza where it is a public place and usually with something going on. Not much role-playing, but chatting with others who are just around to kill time. I did a lot of it back at the bottom of 2020 while healing up from my surgery and got to know and reaffirm some friendships with people who I remember back in the day. Some where also healing too, some waiting for help from doctors, others were people who were between shifts, and then there were just people dealing with going to and from work or anything that they needed to get done, though some were dealing with COVID too. It was fun and I got to make some new friends.

But, you need to remember to have friends, you need to be a friend. Friends are going to get on your nerves from time to time. They are going to do things that make you wonder what the hell is going on or they are going to need a favor or two. Some like I have had have raided the refrigerator and drinking the last beer, finishing off the last of the Jack Daniels ... this happened back in the 1990s more than naught ... or they might just need a sounding board to vent about. However, as a friend, you need to be worthy of that friendship and trust. Let them know when they have overstepped and they will do the same for you. These minor things are called life and if you can handle them with grace, you might inspire that within your friends and they in turn will be good friends to others in their worlds.

"The office of a friend is to stand with you when you are wrong for everyone will stand with you when you are right." Samuel Clements also known as Mark Twain.

One of the reasons I have mentioned this is over the past few weeks, I had attracted some of the real problems in players. One of them called himself something highly suggestive ... and before you ask, I will not name and shame him. A nice guy, but shy and vacuous in the fact that he did not know how to talk to people. Online you have a sort of secret identity, which allows you to be whatever you want to be and this kid was full tilt unfiltered. This being an encounter on The List (f-list.net) as I call it and ... well, immature, sexually unhinged, and unsavory behavior can be abound. Over a few meets, this guy made me feel very uncomfortable to where I was questioning his age. He told me that he was in his thirties and, while I could see the potability, his credibility was lost on me. And because of the moderators coming down HARD on the underaged players being around, I decided to ask him to leave me be and not to contact me again. I also decided to ban him from my account there.

Now, this is why I do not role-play on other sites, so please don't ask. I do NOT trust Discord for the reason of the countless people who have mentioned that they have ben hacked and the fact that there doesn't sound like there is any moderating of these places. I don't role-play through notes because it is pointless. Most of the time, I will post something worth reading and then I will get something that is lackluster. Or worse, someone that repeats what I post ... yes, I have had players try to copy my style of prose and details or worse we end up doing the same scene over and over again. I dislike the chat system of Deviant Art's insta-notes because it is hit or miss if it works. Sorry, Deviant Art, no thank you.

Look, if you want to find me, I'm not hard to find. If you cannot log into Tapestries, I can be found at The List (f-list.net) most of my downtime these days. I do enjoy role-playing and telling my stories ... if you have been following me for any length of time and especially today if you have read this far, you know and understand better than most. I try to always be gracious, gentle, humble, and supportive in chatting with people, whether they are commenting on reposted artworks or in my status updates or journals. It's because of people like you that not only am I around, but that I seem to have built up some fame and fortune. For that, you will always have my thanks.

Speaking of thanks, over the past few weeks, perhaps even a few months, I have been rotating through characters more and going through the two slightly different characters like Israfel Vincent, the meta-human, or Ricochet Kaboom! the tigress and Caitlynn Wildfire, the Changeling, or the Mighty PlastiCat. This past weekend, I got to hang out in The List's public room or channel known as the Inflation Room, a place I always think of more like a night club or just a hang out like I had back when I was a teenager called Citylights back in the 1980s. You go to places like this that have adults keeping an eye on things, there is often a cover charge, and then you can get things like pizza and soda or play pool or video game or even pinball. If you feel groovy, you can get out there and dance, which is something I loved doing when I was that age. Anyways, I got to meet and listen to people who knew something of the character I was running at the moment, the Mighty PlastiCat. And it was fun! I even had one fan come by and ask for an autograph ... a role-playing bit, but it really made me smile.

Part of why I keep on talking about my past is to keep my brain active, but to also remember the good and bad times, though the later is slowly becoming more of nostalgia than painful memories, something that you will discover as you go through life. At least I hope.

So, remember as you go through life, it is better to be respectful and kind to others than to be the reverse. People will gravitate towards you and want to be around you more if you show them your inner light. If you don't think you have one, you might want to find out why and change that. One my my thoughts of my life these days has been Michael Jackson's song, "The Man In The Mirror!" If you want to change, take a look in the mirror and change what is there first. Get your own house in order. It takes a lot of work, trust me when I say I know that to be so true. I have wrecked my life many times and yet through the wreckage, I have managed to stand up again and continue on. If this helps, remember what my Uncle Buck taught me, "It's not about the fall, but how you get back up that defines you best!"

BE Happy!

Love and Kisses,
Loonia