Gridiron Gang 2k24 is a mix of simulation style football league looking to emulate real football which achieving a high level of madden competition.
We currently have a core group of users that want to play and also build their teams. We are continuously looking for other users who are looking for a long-term & stable league. A lot of work went into building this & if you are looking for organization and consistency, this league is for you. If you can't take a L, this isn't the league for you.

Next Gen Xbox League
All-pro difficulty Comp setting
27/32 Spots Filled
Year 1 Week 15
2023 Rookie Rosters (Rounds 1-3, w a few late round picks) & Offszn transactions
Long-term franchise
Advanced Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday @ 10AM EST
8 Min Quarters 20s Acc Clock
Organized Discord/Rulebook
NeonSportz integration
GOTW Award boost
Press conference award boost
End of season award boost
Active user dev boost for playing 10+ games
Looking for mature, long-term & active users only
Check out the discord & see if the league is a fit for you
Open teams: > Falcons (4-9) Cardinals (4-9) Packers (7-6) Bills (7-6) Panthers (8-5) https://discord.gg/eHAqMA6ny4

Good afternoon everyone. Got a few more pools I’ve put together sort of last minute for the remaining 2 1/2 weeks of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Would love to get as many who’d like to join to join. If you have any friends, whether online or IRL, who you know might be interested, please send them these pools to join. We aren’t playing for life changing or in most cases even day changing money, but I think most of us would agree that as beautiful as sports are, we all get a little bit more enjoyment out of them when we have a little something on the line. As always, if someone doesn’t have leaguesafe and you can’t pay for them, I can accept Venmo or cashapp as payment and pay into the pot on their behalf if that’s easier for them.
Pools that start Friday, June 9 (2 days away!):
Second Chance Survivor: https://www.leaguesafe.com/join/4113050
Same rules as first time.
Super Regionals Pick Em: https://www.leaguesafe.com/join/4113058
Weekend 2 Super Regionals Pick Em. 1 point for picking correct team to win the weekend series and 1 point for correctly picking whether it will take 2 or 3 games. Also predict the total number of runs by each team in the series. Example: South Carolina defeats Florida in 3 games. Total runs: South Carolina: 19 Florida: 17 Because it is so unlikely, 20 points for guessing the exact number of runs scored for any team, 15 points for being 1 off, 10 points for being within 2, and 5 points for being within 3. This is a Super Regional Weekend contest only. So if all your picks for any given series were correct including being spot on with run predictions for each team, you could earn up to 42 points per series. This is a fun 1 weekend pick ‘em game.
Pools that start Friday, June 16 (College World Series Day 1!):
Get a random CWS team. Winner takes 70%, runner up takes 20%: https://www.leaguesafe.com/join/4113094
Every CWS team assigned to one player. Winner take 70%, runner up take 20%. Randomized on random.org. I will either screen record or live stream (if I can figure out a good way to do it) me randomizing the teams. I don’t know any of you in real life and I won’t allow myself to play so that there’ll be no question about me being unbiased in who gets what team. The first person to pay will start off with slot 1, the second person with slot 2, and so on. I will then start with the teams in alphabetical order and then randomize the teams 8 times (also the number of teams/players) and on the 8th time whatever team you get will be your team. Again, I will take 10% of the pot for organizing and not being eligible to play for the pot since some of you might think I was a shady commissioner if I wound up with the best team, which is the last thing I’d want. You can buy multiple spots in this if you like. I will assign teams after everyone has paid AND this weekends results are final meaning we know the 8 teams who will be in the College World Series. The College World Series starts June 16.

Hello fellow Diablo enthusiasts,
I wanted to take a moment to address some of the concerns and complaints that have been circulating regarding Diablo 4. While the game is still in development and subject to change, it's essential to voice our opinions and provide constructive feedback in the hope of seeing improvements over time. Here are some prevalent concerns that I've come across, along with potential solutions that could enhance the overall player experience:

Quality of Life:

Gem Pouch and Nightmare Sigil Pouch: The limited inventory space for gems and the fact that the Nightmare Sigil Pouch shares a tab with consumables can become frustrating. It would be great to have a separate, dedicated pouch for gems, allowing us to pick them up without worrying about inventory constraints.
Ear Pouch: Currently, ears share inventory space without any significant use. Introducing a purpose for ears, such as using them as a currency for specific rewards or crafting materials, would make them more valuable and encourage players to collect and utilize them.
Horse Sprint and Barricades: It would be a great addition if horse sprinting allowed us to leap over barricades, making traversal more seamless and convenient. This feature would be especially helpful when exploring the world or engaging in fast-paced combat encounters.
Vendors and Travel Distances: Moving vendors closer to each other within towns or introducing additional vendors would lessen the need for excessive travel. Alternatively, allowing horse sprint and abilities to be used within town limits would also help in reducing travel time and enhancing convenience.

Design Decisions:

Looking for Group Tool and World Chat: The absence of a looking for group tool or world chat feature has been a point of contention. Implementing these features would facilitate easier grouping and foster a stronger sense of community within the game.
Gems and Ears: To address the issue of redundant gems and unused ears, it would be beneficial to introduce more ways to utilize them. For example, higher-level gem enhancements, gem-related crafting recipes, or rare and powerful items that require a combination of gems and ears as a crafting material.
Repeatable Campaign Bosses: Allowing players to face campaign bosses repeatedly, even after completion, in the form of whispers activities would provide additional challenges and rewards. Furthermore, it would prevent the unintentional brick of Hardcore characters not being able to complete Hardcore campaign boss kill achievments when utilizing the skip campaign feature (after being completed on a softcore character).
Lack of Build Diversity: A common concern is the limited number of viable endgame builds for each class. Expanding the range of viable build options would promote greater diversity and encourage experimentation among players.
Helltide Density: Increasing the density of Helltide encounters would create more thrilling and action-packed moments, enhancing the overall excitement and engagement of endgame content.

(Opinion) Unsatisfactory Endgame Loops:

Dungeons: The lack of diversity in map layouts and events within dungeons can make the endgame experience feel repetitive. Introducing a wider variety of layouts and unique events for each dungeon would add depth and excitement to the gameplay.
Campaign Bosses as Uber Versions: Utilizing campaign bosses as uber versions would provide an additional challenge for players, rewarding them with unique loot and further incentivizing exploration and progression. Currently we only have Uber Lilith. It feels like a wasted opportunity to not include Andariel, Duriel, Astaroth and Elijah.

It's important to remember that Diablo 4 is still in development, and the development team values our feedback. By addressing these concerns constructively, we can contribute to the improvement and evolution of the game. Let's continue to provide feedback, share ideas, and work together to shape Diablo 4 into the best experience it can be.
Stay vigilant, Nephalem!

Bet Record: 32-38 Individual Picks: 33-40

Tuesdays Picks 06/06/2023

Las Vegas Aces Vs. Connecticut Sun @7PM

Las Vegas -5.5✅ F: 90-84 LV
LV/CON OVER 167.5 ✅ T: 174
DeWanna Bonner O17.5 PTS❌ T: 5
Chelsea Grey 20+ PTS (.5 u) ❌ T: 14
Aces Win By 11+ PTS (.5 u) ❌ +6 PTS

Indiana Fever Vs. Chicago Sky @8PM

Chicago Sky -5.5❌ F: 108-103 CHI / OT
IND/CHI UNDER 157.5❌ T: 211
Kahleah Copper 20+ PTS ✅ T: 24
Dana Evans O9.5 PTS ✅ T: 20

Los Angeles Sparks Vs. Seattle Storm @10

LA Sparks -3.5 ❌ F: 66-63 SEA
LA/SEA OVER 164.5 ❌ T: 129
Ezi Magbegor 15+ PTS ❌ T: 13
Chiney Ogwumike U5.5 REB PUSH -DNS (FOOT INJURY)
_**Last night was tough. A couple tight games, Chicago almost covered the spread in OT. Seattle and LA couldn’t seem to make buckets all game, both teams shot less than 40% from the field.
Todays Picks 07/06/2023

Minnesota Lynx Vs. NY Liberty @7PM

Minnesota Lynx +14.5 odds -118
MIN/NY OVER 163.5 odds -110
Tiffany Mitchell 15+ PTS odds +180
Napheesa Collier O19.5 PTS odds +100
Napheesa Collier O6.5 REB odds +100
Kayla McBride O15.5 PTS odds +100
** Kayla McBride 20+ PTS** (.5 u) odds +245
Minnesota Lynx ML (.5 u) odds +790
Minnesota Lynx First Half (.5u) odds +370
Phoenix Mercury Vs. Dallas Wings @8PM
Phoenix Mercury +4.5 odds -105
PHX/DAL OVER 167.5 odds -110
Phoenix Mercury ML (.5 u) odds +168
Natasha Howard U17.5 PTS odds +100
As always BOL to anyone tailing! Went a little heavy on the Lynx but they’re good y’all I feel it in my jimmies

First post- https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13wy7qb/i_was_a_lab_assistant_of_sorts/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Hey guys, I’m back again with an update.
It’s been a couple of days and the food is just about gone. Luckily, there’s a sink in the corner so I don’t have to worry about water. It tastes a little metaly but it hasn’t made me puke so I guess it’s fine. For some reason, there’s a bag of cat food in the corner so I guess if it comes down to it I can eat that.
Okay, now onto what you’re all really interested in.
The little potato dude is okay. He’s still a weird little guy, but I haven’t had to smash him yet. I know what he eats now, but that's getting ahead of myself a bit. We’ve come to an understanding but it definitely took us some time to get there.
The first day was the worst.
As I tried to find ways out of the little room, the little guy just kept screaming to be let out. The longer he screamed, the more he started to sound like a baby crying for food. I swear I could hear him through my headphones, and after they died, I was stuck with just the sound of him crying. I alternated between charging my phone and charging my earbud case, but sometimes I was still left listening to the little guy scream.
He cried till about midnight, and that's when I almost snapped.
I picked up the tank, now more like a fish tank and less like a jar, and stared through the glass at him. I must have been pretty scary because he stopped yelling and just stared back at me with his multiple eyes. He had so many, they were all over his body, and we had a little staring contest before I finally told him to shut up.
“Or else I will smash your little tank and squish you like a bug.”
He seemed to think about that, and when he nodded it was like his whole body nodding.
We had some silence after that as the two of us sat and made our little plans. I thought about calling campus security, but when I tried, they just thought I was goofing. I tried to explain to them where I was and what was going on, but they just told me not to play games and hung up on me. I tried 911 again, but they said the same thing. Heck, the lady on the 911 call threatened to call the police if I kept calling, and I told her to go right ahead. Maybe the police could find me better than campus security, but since they haven’t broken down the door yet, I guess not.
It was about three am when I finally thought to look at the tank and found him watching me.
“Well?” I asked, making the little guy jump, “Have you got any ideas?”
He seemed to think about it, but before he could say it, I cut him off.
“And don’t say let you out of the tank.”
“Fair enough,” he said, “In that case, I have nothing to add yet.”
“Terrific!” I said, putting my head in my hands and staring at the floor.
“Have you, perhaps, thought about vents or drains?”
I had, but they were all too small for me to climb into. There was a drain in the floor but I couldn’t even get a foot in there. The ventilation shafts were an idea, but most of them would be too snug for me. I’m a beefy guy, not muscular but kinda fat, and getting stuck in the vents sounded like a terrible way to die without anyone realizing it.
“Yeah, obviously. I’m too big to fit through those.”
“A problem I do not have.” the creature reminded me, more than a little smugly too.
“Back to that again,” I growled, “And what's to stop you from just leaving me hanging once you get out?”
The little dude didn’t say anything for a few minutes, contemplating his next move as I Googled like a madman. I was looking for blueprints for the college online since a place like this would have to have them filed. See, I’m not super smart when it comes to math and science, but I know a little bit about building permits and filing your blueprints with the city. If this place was built by the college, then it had to exist in the public sphere.
After an hour of looking with no results, I was ready to throw my phone down. I went and grabbed some kale chips out of the little fridge, munching them sullenly as I tried to come up with a plan. The little guy was back to looking at me again, and I couldn’t help but notice that something had changed. All the eyes on his body opened and closed but they were never all open at once. He also looked tired, maybe even a little pale. I looked down at the bag of chips and thought again about how I might have to feed this little guy at some point.
“Do you need to eat? It’s been about twenty-four hours since Doc was here, and I don’t think I’ve ever been here when he feeds you.”
The little creature pulled its lips up into a sad smile, “You couldn’t feed me what I want. I don’t eat normal food and you aren’t equipped to give me what I need.”
I started to get a little offended, “What's that supposed to mean?”
It looked at me, and I felt a little shudder ripple over my skin as it did.
“I feed on brain waves. Creative brain waves, to be precise. The Doctor feeds me by just being around me like his lab assistants did. You, however, don’t seem to create the same way he did. You look at your little device all the time and it makes your brain waves taste bland and unappetizing. That's why The Doctor’s Assistants kept getting headaches. The more they created, the more I fed. The Doctor doesn’t get them because his mind is like a wellspring. You, on the other hand, are incapable of nourishing me. You simply don’t think the same.”
I sat back, not sure whether to be happy that I couldn’t feed him or offended that he was sayin I was too dumb?
In the end, I guess I just decided to roll with it.
“Well, I guess we’re both stuck then. You need to eat brainwaves and I need to eat food. We can’t get either here, so what do we do about it?”
“Is there anything in here we could use to break open the door?” the creature asked hopefully.
“Checked already. There’s some lab equipment and the fridge, the table you're on, and the chair I’m sitting in. Other than that, not much. There are books, but none of them are gonna get us out of here.”
I kept searching on my phone for something that looked familiar in the blueprints, but it was getting frustrating.
“Ugh, if only I knew where we were. If I knew the name of the building I could find the right map or tell security where to find us!”
“Wait, is that all you need to get us out of here?” it asked, floating close to the side of the tank so it could look at me.
“Well yeah. If I knew where we were then I could tell security where we were stuck.”
“I know where we are,” it said, and it sounded less smug and more sinister when it said it.
I stared back at it for a few seconds, waiting for it to fill me in.
It sat there for a few seconds, waiting for me to ask the question.
“Well? Are you gonna tell me or what?”
“Why should I?” it said, “If I tell you, then you’ll just leave and I’ll be stuck here. What guarantee do I have that you won’t just leave me once you’ve gained your freedom.”
The little son of a bitch had me there. There would be nothing to stop me from just leaving him here to die in that tank. Without any brain wave to gobble, he’d shrivel up and die. Maybe that's what he deserved, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hate him like that. The little dude had never done me wrong, and I couldn’t mess up my karma by shafting him like that.
“I promise that if we get that door open, I’ll take you with me.”
“And release me?” he asked, hedging.
“Dude, if you get us out of here, I’ll take you to SeaWorld and release you, if that's what you want. The kale chips are going to run out soon, and if I starve, you are SOL little bud. You might not be able to eat my brain waves, but you can’t open your tank or dial my cell phone with those baby fingers either. Whether we like it or not, we kinda need each other right now.”
The creature nodded, bumping its little head against the side of the glass.
“Agreed. I will have to trust in your honor, I suppose.”
“Brah, I am chocked full of honor. I've never welched on a promise and I’m not gonna start now.”
“Very well then,” it said with a little smile, “The building is called Rashley Laboratories. At least that's what the assistants always thought of when they thought about it at all. One of them thought it was spooky when they walked through it to get here, and the images led me to believe that it might be abandoned.”
I already had the cell phone out and Googling as he finished. There was no Rashley Laboratories, but there was an R. Ashley Science Hall. It had been abandoned in the nineties after an explosion in the science wing, but the campus had never torn it down for some reason. It had been named a historic building in two thousand nine and while they had renovated the outside to make it prettier, the inside was pretty much untouched. Sounded like a great place for a secret lab and a covert experiment.
Campus security picked up on the second ring, and I sighed when I realized it was the same guy I had dealt with the night before.
“Campus security, Officer Rob speaking, how may I help you?”
“Hey, yeah, we talked last night before you hung up on me. I still,”
“Hey, I remember you. Are you still playing this game? This has got to be getting old by now.”
“Look, just listen. We’re…I’m stuck in the R. Ashley Science Hall and I need help.”
There was silence as he digested this.
“Okay, nice try, but that building has been closed for years. I’m pretty sure the doors never open. How exactly did you get in there, if you are actually stuck in there?”
“It’s hard to explain,” I said, looking at the little potato dude as I thought about how to start.
“I’ve got time, let's hear the whole story,” he said, pretending to be interested. To hell with it, I decided, might as well lay it all on the line.
“I’m sitting down here with Doctor Crandler’s experiment, the one who got arrested for buying stuff to make. He pays me to sit down here and watch it at night, but the door is locked and I need someone to let me out.”
The line was quiet for a few seconds, and then Officer Rob started laughing.
“Wow, great story. I love the little name drop, but I’m kind of busy to be going down to an abandoned building and tromping through dust right now, why don’t you call back when,”
“Fine,” I said, deciding to take another direction, “maybe I’ll just call the Feds and let them know that I have a highly illegal experiment that Doctor Crandler was working on and that the college was probably helping to fund. Then, when they ask why campus security didn’t take the call, you can tell them how you thought it was a big joke and didn’t look into it. That's probably going to make you look really great.”
There was silence for a minute, then a big sigh from Rob.
“Okay, kid. It’s at least worth a look, I guess. Give me your cell phone number so I can call you from my security phone when I get there. You can help me find you since you’re so lost.”
I looked back at the potato dude, putting my hand over the phone as I whispered, “Got any other ideas about how to find us?”
He looked like he was thinking, before nodding and saying he could probably guide him to us.
So that's where we’re at now. Help seems to be on the way, and I’m updating you guys as I wait for the security dude to call back. I’ll post again when I have an update so stay tuned for more news. Wish me luck, hopefully, we make it out of here pretty soon cause one more kale chip and I might need a barf bucket.

Pick the winner of each game happening this weekend (click here for upcoming games). Keep track of your record and let's see how everyone does. Be sure to add one bold prediction at the end of your comment (can be about anything)!
AUDL Discussion Threads:

Sundays at 3:00pm ET: Reactions and Overreactions Thread
Mondays at 6:00am ET: Community Power Rankings (Top 10)
Wednesdays at 3:00pm ET: Weekly Predictions Thread
Fridays at 6:00am ET: Weekly Discussion Thread

First post- https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13wy7qb/i_was_a_lab_assistant_of_sorts/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Hey guys, I’m back again with an update.
It’s been a couple of days and the food is just about gone. Luckily, there’s a sink in the corner so I don’t have to worry about water. It tastes a little metaly but it hasn’t made me puke so I guess it’s fine. For some reason, there’s a bag of cat food in the corner so I guess if it comes down to it I can eat that.
Okay, now onto what you’re all really interested in.
The little potato dude is okay. He’s still a weird little guy, but I haven’t had to smash him yet. I know what he eats now, but that's getting ahead of myself a bit. We’ve come to an understanding but it definitely took us some time to get there.
The first day was the worst.
As I tried to find ways out of the little room, the little guy just kept screaming to be let out. The longer he screamed, the more he started to sound like a baby crying for food. I swear I could hear him through my headphones, and after they died, I was stuck with just the sound of him crying. I alternated between charging my phone and charging my earbud case, but sometimes I was still left listening to the little guy scream.
He cried till about midnight, and that's when I almost snapped.
I picked up the tank, now more like a fish tank and less like a jar, and stared through the glass at him. I must have been pretty scary because he stopped yelling and just stared back at me with his multiple eyes. He had so many, they were all over his body, and we had a little staring contest before I finally told him to shut up.
“Or else I will smash your little tank and squish you like a bug.”
He seemed to think about that, and when he nodded it was like his whole body nodding.
We had some silence after that as the two of us sat and made our little plans. I thought about calling campus security, but when I tried, they just thought I was goofing. I tried to explain to them where I was and what was going on, but they just told me not to play games and hung up on me. I tried 911 again, but they said the same thing. Heck, the lady on the 911 call threatened to call the police if I kept calling, and I told her to go right ahead. Maybe the police could find me better than campus security, but since they haven’t broken down the door yet, I guess not.
It was about three am when I finally thought to look at the tank and found him watching me.
“Well?” I asked, making the little guy jump, “Have you got any ideas?”
He seemed to think about it, but before he could say it, I cut him off.
“And don’t say let you out of the tank.”
“Fair enough,” he said, “In that case, I have nothing to add yet.”
“Terrific!” I said, putting my head in my hands and staring at the floor.
“Have you, perhaps, thought about vents or drains?”
I had, but they were all too small for me to climb into. There was a drain in the floor but I couldn’t even get a foot in there. The ventilation shafts were an idea, but most of them would be too snug for me. I’m a beefy guy, not muscular but kinda fat, and getting stuck in the vents sounded like a terrible way to die without anyone realizing it.
“Yeah, obviously. I’m too big to fit through those.”
“A problem I do not have.” the creature reminded me, more than a little smugly too.
“Back to that again,” I growled, “And what's to stop you from just leaving me hanging once you get out?”
The little dude didn’t say anything for a few minutes, contemplating his next move as I Googled like a madman. I was looking for blueprints for the college online since a place like this would have to have them filed. See, I’m not super smart when it comes to math and science, but I know a little bit about building permits and filing your blueprints with the city. If this place was built by the college, then it had to exist in the public sphere.
After an hour of looking with no results, I was ready to throw my phone down. I went and grabbed some kale chips out of the little fridge, munching them sullenly as I tried to come up with a plan. The little guy was back to looking at me again, and I couldn’t help but notice that something had changed. All the eyes on his body opened and closed but they were never all open at once. He also looked tired, maybe even a little pale. I looked down at the bag of chips and thought again about how I might have to feed this little guy at some point.
“Do you need to eat? It’s been about twenty-four hours since Doc was here, and I don’t think I’ve ever been here when he feeds you.”
The little creature pulled its lips up into a sad smile, “You couldn’t feed me what I want. I don’t eat normal food and you aren’t equipped to give me what I need.”
I started to get a little offended, “What's that supposed to mean?”
It looked at me, and I felt a little shudder ripple over my skin as it did.
“I feed on brain waves. Creative brain waves, to be precise. The Doctor feeds me by just being around me like his lab assistants did. You, however, don’t seem to create the same way he did. You look at your little device all the time and it makes your brain waves taste bland and unappetizing. That's why The Doctor’s Assistants kept getting headaches. The more they created, the more I fed. The Doctor doesn’t get them because his mind is like a wellspring. You, on the other hand, are incapable of nourishing me. You simply don’t think the same.”
I sat back, not sure whether to be happy that I couldn’t feed him or offended that he was sayin I was too dumb?
In the end, I guess I just decided to roll with it.
“Well, I guess we’re both stuck then. You need to eat brainwaves and I need to eat food. We can’t get either here, so what do we do about it?”
“Is there anything in here we could use to break open the door?” the creature asked hopefully.
“Checked already. There’s some lab equipment and the fridge, the table you're on, and the chair I’m sitting in. Other than that, not much. There are books, but none of them are gonna get us out of here.”
I kept searching on my phone for something that looked familiar in the blueprints, but it was getting frustrating.
“Ugh, if only I knew where we were. If I knew the name of the building I could find the right map or tell security where to find us!”
“Wait, is that all you need to get us out of here?” it asked, floating close to the side of the tank so it could look at me.
“Well yeah. If I knew where we were then I could tell security where we were stuck.”
“I know where we are,” it said, and it sounded less smug and more sinister when it said it.
I stared back at it for a few seconds, waiting for it to fill me in.
It sat there for a few seconds, waiting for me to ask the question.
“Well? Are you gonna tell me or what?”
“Why should I?” it said, “If I tell you, then you’ll just leave and I’ll be stuck here. What guarantee do I have that you won’t just leave me once you’ve gained your freedom.”
The little son of a bitch had me there. There would be nothing to stop me from just leaving him here to die in that tank. Without any brain wave to gobble, he’d shrivel up and die. Maybe that's what he deserved, but I just couldn’t bring myself to hate him like that. The little dude had never done me wrong, and I couldn’t mess up my karma by shafting him like that.
“I promise that if we get that door open, I’ll take you with me.”
“And release me?” he asked, hedging.
“Dude, if you get us out of here, I’ll take you to SeaWorld and release you, if that's what you want. The kale chips are going to run out soon, and if I starve, you are SOL little bud. You might not be able to eat my brain waves, but you can’t open your tank or dial my cell phone with those baby fingers either. Whether we like it or not, we kinda need each other right now.”
The creature nodded, bumping its little head against the side of the glass.
“Agreed. I will have to trust in your honor, I suppose.”
“Brah, I am chocked full of honor. I've never welched on a promise and I’m not gonna start now.”
“Very well then,” it said with a little smile, “The building is called Rashley Laboratories. At least that's what the assistants always thought of when they thought about it at all. One of them thought it was spooky when they walked through it to get here, and the images led me to believe that it might be abandoned.”
I already had the cell phone out and Googling as he finished. There was no Rashley Laboratories, but there was an R. Ashley Science Hall. It had been abandoned in the nineties after an explosion in the science wing, but the campus had never torn it down for some reason. It had been named a historic building in two thousand nine and while they had renovated the outside to make it prettier, the inside was pretty much untouched. Sounded like a great place for a secret lab and a covert experiment.
Campus security picked up on the second ring, and I sighed when I realized it was the same guy I had dealt with the night before.
“Campus security, Officer Rob speaking, how may I help you?”
“Hey, yeah, we talked last night before you hung up on me. I still,”
“Hey, I remember you. Are you still playing this game? This has got to be getting old by now.”
“Look, just listen. We’re…I’m stuck in the R. Ashley Science Hall and I need help.”
There was silence as he digested this.
“Okay, nice try, but that building has been closed for years. I’m pretty sure the doors never open. How exactly did you get in there, if you are actually stuck in there?”
“It’s hard to explain,” I said, looking at the little potato dude as I thought about how to start.
“I’ve got time, let's hear the whole story,” he said, pretending to be interested. To hell with it, I decided, might as well lay it all on the line.
“I’m sitting down here with Doctor Crandler’s experiment, the one who got arrested for buying stuff to make. He pays me to sit down here and watch it at night, but the door is locked and I need someone to let me out.”
The line was quiet for a few seconds, and then Officer Rob started laughing.
“Wow, great story. I love the little name drop, but I’m kind of busy to be going down to an abandoned building and tromping through dust right now, why don’t you call back when,”
“Fine,” I said, deciding to take another direction, “maybe I’ll just call the Feds and let them know that I have a highly illegal experiment that Doctor Crandler was working on and that the college was probably helping to fund. Then, when they ask why campus security didn’t take the call, you can tell them how you thought it was a big joke and didn’t look into it. That's probably going to make you look really great.”
There was silence for a minute, then a big sigh from Rob.
“Okay, kid. It’s at least worth a look, I guess. Give me your cell phone number so I can call you from my security phone when I get there. You can help me find you since you’re so lost.”
I looked back at the potato dude, putting my hand over the phone as I whispered, “Got any other ideas about how to find us?”
He looked like he was thinking, before nodding and saying he could probably guide him to us.
So that's where we’re at now. Help seems to be on the way, and I’m updating you guys as I wait for the security dude to call back. I’ll post again when I have an update so stay tuned for more news. Wish me luck, hopefully, we make it out of here pretty soon cause one more kale chip and I might need a barf bucket.

First / Previous / Next
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Daniel heaved up Hannah’rah to prevent her from falling off of his back as he carried her back from their walk, which she happened to misjudge the length of. He didn’t mind too much, as she was fairly light, but the frequency that it was happening made him suspicious that she might be doing it on purpose.
“Hey, sleepy, you still awake?” he asked.
“Mmh?” she quietly replied.
“If you’re this tired, I’m not sure we’ll make the gaming tournament tomorrow.”
“I’ll be fine, ‘s why I’m resting now.”
“Uh huh. And do get to rest as well at some point, right?”
“You need less sleep than me,” she mumbled.
“Any chance I can sleep in a little and wake up to a nice breakfast?”
“‘Course.”
“Thank you,” he replied, turning his head and kissing her on the lips.
-----------------------------
Daniel yawned as he woke up, looking around his room on the Trailmaker, and at Hannah'rah who was still asleep next to him. He gently stroked her head for a moment wondering if there was any chance he could get her planet side with him, maybe even to go on a walk like they used to, but with her duties to defend the ship, especially with an open connection to the station, and the fact that there wasn't anything that only she could do down on the planet, he realised it was practically impossible. He instead spent his waking energy running through his spell exercises, manipulating a weighted ball on the desk completely with magic and getting used to holding spells for a longer period of time. As he did it, he attempted to recall some of his dream again, but all he could remember of it was that it was based on a memory of them hiking together.
As he was doing so, he realised that it had been a while since he'd attempted to speak with Ordos, and now that he was back in UPC space, there was a better chance of success. He uttered an invitation, and waited.
'There's a reason us Deities don't respond all the time, you know,' Ordos told him.
'Sorry, but I had to try again to see if I could,' Daniel apologised.
‘What did you wish to ask?’ Ordos asked.
‘You probably know, but I have two questions. The first is, am I the first person to align with you?’
‘You are currently the only person aligned with me. A sort of test, if you will,’ the God confirmed.
‘Thank you, and second, are you here in this system?’
‘No, I’m on Earth, or my main physical form is anyway.’
‘When I come back to Earth, can I meet you please?’
‘That depends on many things, and some are unlikely.’
‘I understand. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me.’
‘You’re welcome,’ Ordos told him. ‘I do have something for you, however, which is why we’re talking right now. There’s a “friend” of yours on the station, looking to have a chat like before the Trailmaker left port. Do what you will with this information.’
‘Thank you, Ordos, I appreciate the warning,’ Daniel replied, sensing the connection end.
-----------------------------
Daniel adjusted his jacket, making sure it was sitting comfortably over his uniform and obscuring his rank slides and brassard, and disembarked from the Trailmaker onto the station. He mainly wanted to wear it so he wasn’t purely in space uniform when he was planet side, but it would help him be slightly harder to spot in a crowd, as anyone could own a jacket, but not his ranks and awards. He knew he had a little time to kill before his shuttle was ready, so he began to check some of the select civilian stands laid out in a small market that had been allowed to set up shop to sell some things to the Navy personnel, as well as allow the few Langan aboard to try some of the smaller luxuries the UPC had to offer. He joined the back of a small line to a food stall to see if he could grab a few small treats, and he was pleased to see signage saying that everything on sale was rated safe for all species, including Langan.
When he got to the front of the line, he picked up four bars of chocolate, as well as four bottles of cola. He presented his holo to the payment terminal, confirmed the slightly overpriced transaction, and made sure it went through. He smiled at the stall attendant who was just there to restock and deal with any Langan customers, and walked away, stuffing the items into his jacket pockets, securing them properly.
Finding he still had a bit of time, he also headed over to a less busy stall nearby that was staffed by a Lagan looking to make a head start in their new life, selling some copies of Langan items. Daniel had a quick browse, and his eyes landed on a set of books he thought could make a useful tool to help him learn Langan writing a little faster if he decided to learn it. He saw the price and knew he could just wait a few months and get them online for dirt cheap, but he admired the stall keeper's desire to get started out again, so he bought the books which worked out to be about two day’s salary, making the Langan very happy.
He checked the time once again to see that he could probably start boarding the shuttle very soon, so he began to casually make his way towards the shuttle bay, checking his messages to see if anything had come through, finding a few messages from his group of friends welcoming him back to UPC space, and correctly guessing that his ship was the one to make first contact. He sent a quick reply to them all, thanking them and promising to talk properly when he had more time. He also found a message from an unverified source, which he quickly read and deleted, finding the information within to be useful but disappointing, reminding him he still had to sort out the chip he was hiding.
“Lieutenant Daniel Hardbrooks, what a pleasant surprise!”
Daniel stopped as he felt a hand on his shoulder, looking to his side to see someone he didn’t recognise, wearing the stereotypical agent suit. “Wrong person, sorry.”
“Don’t be like that, I just want to have a quick chat, that’s all.”
“I’m not a Lieutenant, and you’re not wearing a Navy ID or a visitor pass, so I strongly suggest you identify yourself before I call for security,” Daniel replied.
“Agent Johnson, CSB,” the man told him, flashing their ID.
“Ok, but you’ve still got the wrong person, and I don’t have a lot of time, so sorry, and good luck on you manhunt.”
“Sorry, Lieutenant Commander Hardbrooks,” the man apologised in a snide tone.
“I still don’t have time, goodbye,” Daniel replied, walking away.
"I'm afraid I really need to talk," the Agent insisted, grabbing Daniel's left arm to prevent him from walking away.
"I politely request you let go."
"There's a quiet room down the way where we can talk."
"I strongly suggest you let go," Daniel sternly persisted.
"And I strongly suggest you come with me," the Agent warned him, glancing at Daniel's arm as it beeped, indicating something that shouldn't be used accidentally had just been powered on.
"I am giving you one-"
"Come on, Lieutenant Commander, you're holding up the shuttle."
Daniel looked over his other shoulder as Milla grabbed his other arm and firmly pulled him away from the Agent and towards the shuttle bay, forcing the Agent to let go. Daniel looked back at the Agent, who prepared to give chase, but was immediately confronted with two military police officers.
"Thanks for the save," Daniel told her.
"We're even for you helping me after the jump, right?" she asked, messing with her holo.
"Yeah, sure. How did you kn-"
"Saw the guy arrive yesterday, and heard about your CSB encounter from Hannah'rah. I put two and two together, and got the MPs to keep an eye on him. They probably can't do anything to him, but they can waste his time for not wearing proper ID, which is great for an opportune moment. The timing of me being there to call them over and pull you away was just luck really," she shrugged, closing her holo. "Oh, and by the way, you're on my shuttle now."
"Oh, thanks," he replied, checking the notification as it came through.
"No problem. You'd really think that they'd drop the suit and try to blend in, making sure they at least have fake IDs on display, but nope. It's like everyone there is addicted to century old spy movies or something."
"I know what you mean. A high-vis jacket and a clipboard would be a much better disguise. People might even help you."
"Don't give them ideas," she warned him as she guided him onto a small shuttle, revealing that they were the only two passengers, and when she closed the door, they had complete privacy. "So, why is a government agency after you?"
"I'm not 100% sure, as both times they never managed to get to the point," he shrugged, sitting down and buckling in. "I have a suspicion they want to recruit me, as if they wanted to arrest me, I wouldn't have gotten away so easily. As for where this comes from, well, I have a grey hat background. They could just be trying to find out if I know anything I shouldn't do from that I suppose."
"Grey hat is legal, right?"
"Yes, but you have to tread carefully, as a small slip up can get you in a lot of trouble."
"That's fine then," she replied, signalling to the shuttle pilot on her holo that they were good to go once they were both securely seated. "If that man is still on the station when we return, I think you should stay with me until we're on the ship, just to make it so you can't be singled out."
"Thanks, Milla."
"So, I'm curious to know what you would have done if I didn't arrive in time."
"Oh, I probably would have tased him and reported him for assault after he didn't let go. He wasn't operating by the books, didn't present his ID well enough for me to verify it, and ignored my requests, so I was about to electricity my arm. After all there was no way for me to know if he was telling the truth, and I'm not going to let myself be taken to an unknown place by a shady person," he explained, slightly smirking. "I am a senior officer after all, it's a massive security risk to the Navy if some crook captures me. I can only comply with MPs while on a Naval facility."
"Sounds reasonable to me," Milla chuckled as the shuttle touched down. "Perfect, we're here."
"That was fast."
"Good shuttle and a good pilot," she explained, disembarking and sending the pilot a message of thanks.
"So, I managed to get planet access to help Oprin, but how did you manage," he asked as the shuttle took off behind them.
"Oh, I just needed some fresh air after my recent incident."
"You're lucky you're a Gater. That excuse would never fly with anyone else."
"Yeah, probably not. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get special treatment, such as the ear of MPs, and being able to squeeze friends on private shuttles, instead of slightly more open ones that might have an unwanted ‘friend’ onboard."
“Very lucky and very useful,” he agreed, pulling a bottle of cola and a bar of chocolate out of his pocket. “Here, I was going to give you this when I was back on the ship, but now is as good of a time as any.”
“Giving treats to other women? You’re brave.”
“I’m giving them to all my friends. I have the same for Hannah'rah and Oprin,” he explained.
“I’m glad I’m your friend then,” she replied, opening both and having a small amount of each. “So, what are your plans for today?”
“Just help Oprin with whatever she needs.”
“Mind if I tag along? I didn’t really come here with any more plans than to just wander around and help out where I could.”
“It's up to Oprin really.”
“Fair enough.”
Daniel began to lead Milla down various roads, away from the temporary spaceport, and down to the residential area Oprin’s house was located in. The streets stretched for much longer than they did when he left the day before, but the addition of new homes had been halted to save on the currently limited resources, as there were far more than were required for the current residents, plus a tenth of the currently frozen Langan, and more could easily be built when the logistics hiccup had been resolved. Instead, the few deliveries were more focussed on permanent infrastructure, delivering resources to a few construction ships that had landed and started building a small fusion power plant and multi-purpose factories. Ignoring all that though, they continued until they arrived at Oprin’s home, and Daniel knocked on the door, it opening a moment later to reveal Oprin.
“Oh hello, Daniel,” Oprin happily announced. “Oh, Milla too!”
“How are you doing, Oprin?” Daniel asked.
“Good, but having a few issues with some of the new stuff,” she replied. “Come in and sit down.”
Daniel and Milla obliged, entering and noticing that Oprin’s holo was turned on, but waiting on standby mode with half a dozen icons on display, including the mute, 2D mode, and resolution adjustment mode. A few moments later, she put some glasses of water and a plate of biscuits on the table in front of them, and sat down next to them.
“So, how are things?” Daniel asked.
“It’s nice to live somewhere so comfortable, but I wish I understood more of your technology,” she replied.
“The best thing to do is not to overthink things. We try to keep most things as simple as possible so even a young child would have no problems operating things. All you need to do is slow down and think simple,” he told her, holding up the two remotes, one with significantly more buttons than the other. “Let’s start with the holo here. Ignore the programming remote, and just focus on the normal one. The number buttons allow you to switch to a channel quickly if you know the number, but you don’t, so we can ignore those for now, as well as the circle underneath, as we aren’t dealing with menus. Next, we have two flick switches, once for channel, and one for volume. Flick either up to increase either the channel number or volume number, or down to decrease them. The four buttons underneath are for the channel menu, display resize, dimension mode, and mute. The first can be ignored as it hasn’t been translated yet, and the display resize can as well for now. The dimension mode will change it between 2D and 3D, depending on your preference, and the mute turns the sound on or off. Finally, the red button at the top turns the holo on and off.”
“Ok, so how do I get back to the start?” Oprin asked.
“Just a second,” he replied, playing around with the programming remote to undo everything she had done, slowly resetting everything to its default and setting the holo to the state-run news channel. “Ok, there we go.”
“So what’s this now?”
“So this is the most popular new channel. It details the major headlines from all over the UPC, with segments about local news as well. It gives factual and unbiased reports on many things, but given how general it is, it might not always be relevant to you, and given how it does its best to be unbiased, it can be a bit robotic and boring at times. They worry that any significant emotion will impact how viewers perceive different stories, rather than being able to freely interpret it their own way. It’s a good way to catch up on big things, but it gets boring very quickly, so if you want actual entertainment, you can try one of the other channels. There are a fair few more news channels sprinkled about, but the majority of the remaining channels are purely for entertainment.”
“I see,” she replied, flicking through a few, stopping on one that was currently running a program about various types of spaceships, focussing more on personal high-performance ones. She also spent a few moments flipping between 2D and 3D, and eventually settled on 2D, as she could pick up some faint lighting issues thanks to the sunlight with 3D.
“Also, just so you’re aware, though you don’t have to look now, there are some subscription streaming services that allow you to watch premium content on demand, but you will have to pay and the controls to navigate aren’t as simple. Just so you know if you end up looking for more in the future. They also don’t break up what you’re watching with advertisements.”
“How frequent are the advertisements?” Oprin asked.
“It depends on the channel. State-run ones don’t have any, aside from advertising new shows that will be on that channel later, but some of the others can run up to five minutes of ads every 15-30 minutes.”
“Sounds better than our radio already. About half of the broadcast was advertisements on a good day, and the other half were carefully curated news stories.”
“Sounds like it wasn’t much fun to listen to,” Milla commented.
“No, it really wasn’t. Thankfully, I was too young at the time to have any interest in it.”
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Hi all, just wanted to sorry if the dream sequence felt a little odd for what I normally do. I wanted to make some small changes based on some feedback to show a little more of Daniel and Hannah'rah's past, which is hard to do in the current situation.
I also wanted to make people aware of the Reddit blackout protest happening on the 12th of June. I just wanted to say that I will continue to post my episodes here during the blackout in case any of you are worried, partly due to the sub not taking part in it as well as me not wanting to disrupt your entertainment, but I do agree with the premise behind it and encourage people to look into it if they are unaware of what’s going on.

Day 1:
Few of the tributes got much sleep that night. The parties all throughout the Capitol did not end until dawn, and the noise could be heard in the accommodation building. Vannery and Carton ate breakfast slowly, like zombies. They were subsequently taken to the holding rooms. Organza wished Carton good luck before accompanying Vannery in her cell. She kept trying to reassure her as she put on her beige shorts and t-shirt. The young girl attached her hair with a purple ribbon that had been provided and climbed into the glass tube. Organza hugged her one last time, feeling her tears soaking her shoulder.
It was Platonia Travers who accompanied Carton. She muttered to herself about the outfit choice for this year. She tried to be cold to the boy, but she accepted to help him tie the purple ribbon to his wrist. He gave her a sad smile : “I probably won’t come back, but it’s nice to know that everyone in the Capitol isn’t heartless.” Platonia stood, mute, as the boy’s platform started to rise. She couldn’t keep the tears in this time.
A few cells over, the atmosphere was as morose. Alexandra had finally deigned to discuss their strategy with Delta. She accepted his plan of staying on the sidelines while he ran to the cornucopia. Still, he looked at her suspiciously and hounded her about working together for the whole breakfast. Halifax gave Delta one last pill to combat the morphling withdrawal, assuring him that the only symptoms he would experience were a mild headache and maybe some stiffness. He subsequently accompanied him to his holding room while Sean Callahan went with Alexandra.
Halifax took advantage of being alone with his mentee : “You shouldn’t trust her. I know these kinds of girls. They look harmless, but they’ll stab you in the back as soon as you let down your guard.”
“But-but…”
“You like her, huh ? Too bad, she doesn’t. So, man up and move on !”
Delta did not know what else to say. He climbed into the glass tube in silence, his brows forming a single black line over his dark eyes.
In the next holding room, another conversation was happening. “You don’t plan on allying with Delta, do you ?” asked Sean Callahan. Alexandra looked away coyly. “ I have other plans… With Angelo, we have an agreement.”
The mentor sighed, but he did not criticize the girl. He just told her to be prudent. You couldn’t trust careers. Alexandra nodded then flinched as the glass tube started descending from the ceiling.
The first thing she noticed as she rose into the arena was the noise. She hadn’t even emerged that she could hear a cacophony of bird songs. It was almost deafening, and she covered her ears before protecting her eyes from the sunlight.
The racket made Delta’s headache intensify. He first looked to his sides ; Hattie (3) cowered on the left while Angelo (2), on the right, was focusing on the cornucopia. This year, it had been made out of a thin weave of golden metal, almost like a very shiny basket. After this zoom on the cornucopia, the cameras started moving around to show off the arena. The tributes stood in the clearing of a dense rainforest. The terrain was relatively flat, with a few creeks and an explosion of colorful flowers. The main attraction of it was the birds, however, as thousands of them fluttered about, sang, and screamed.
As Carton looked around for his allies, Head Gamemaker Vishwa welcomed the tributes and wished the odds to be ever in their favor before starting the 30 seconds countdown. With Borea (5) and the girl from 10 to his sides, he didn’t feel safe. He finally found what he was looking for, but he didn’t like that his allies were so spread out. He made eye contact with Rivage and Vannery but was unable to see Sardine, who stood on the opposite side of the cornucopia.
Vannery caught sight of her district partner, as well as Sardine. She gave them a small wave, but made the mistake of looking to her left, where Perfecto (1) was sneering at her. Georges (N), on the other side, was just as intimidating. Instead, she looked straight ahead. As the countdown reached ten, she spotted a coil of rope on the outside of the cornucopia.
Delta had been pondering, unsure if it was worth entering the bloodbath. Alexandra, who happened to be just two podiums over, winked at him. She then pointed to the cornucopia. He understood. At that moment, the countdown reached zero. He sprinted to the center of the clearing, expecting her to follow, but she stayed on her podium.
On later replays, it was shown that Alexandra was winking at Angelo and not her district partner. As the boy from 2 sprinted forth to the cornucopia, the girl waited for a few seconds. She moved only when most of the other tributes were too occupied and grabbed a knife as well as a small bag of food. Angelo acted like he helped the other career tributes in order to pick up weapons and supplies, but as soon as they were occupied, he joined Alexandra. The pair was actually one of the first to leave the clearing, not counting Circuit (3) and the pair from 10 who had run away immediately.
When Vannery realized that she was running side to side with Perfecto (1), she immediately changed course and ran to Carton. She had to give up on the rope but managed to pick a water bottle off of the corpse of the boy from 9, who had just been stabbed by Glare (9).
If the career pack didn’t notice the disappearance of one of theirs, it wasn’t the case for Delta. When he saw his district partner escape with Angelo, he became enraged. He tried to exit the cornucopia. Fraxen then attacked him to try and steal his backpack. Delta threw him to the ground and punched him so hard it broke his neck. Now he had lost trace of Alexandra. As the fighting started to die down, he ran in a random direction.
Carton had dodged one of Glare’s knives and grabbed a bag of food and an unwieldy lance before Vannery and Rivage joined him. The trio heard Sardine scream from the other side of the cornucopia. Carton wanted to go and help her, but a second gargled wail convinced him that they couldn’t do anything else, especially since Proserpina (2) had now retrieved her axe from Sardine’s chest. As they left, they could hear the crunching of Ora’s neck (12) at the hands of Georges (N).
Meanwhile, Alexandra and Angelo were already far away, giggling at each other. It was only after Perfecto had stabbed Hattie (3) to death that the career pack noticed Angelo’s absence, but they didn’t seem bothered by it.
Delta was halfway to the perimeter when the five bloodbath cannons sounded. He was still seething, and the running helped him calm down. Eventually, he collapsed on the side of and old mossy tree, out of breath. Once he was a little better, he explored his surroundings. The big tree had a hole in his roots where Delta could fit, although it was a squeeze. He decided to stay there for now and used moss to hide himself. He also put some in his ears, which helped with his headache.
Carton, Rivage and Vannery had been running in the opposite direction. They wanted to put the most distance between themselves and the other tributes. They stopped long after the bloodbath cannons had sounded. They set up camp a few hundred feet away from the Northern part of the perimeter, next to a creek. Carton helped Rivage to take inventory. He had the lance, Rivage had gotten a trident, and between the three of them they had enough food to last two days at most. The bottle Vannery had taken was only half full, but the water of the creek was clear and drinkable.
The trio decided to stay put. Vannery and Carton would work on a shelter while Rivage fished for their dinner, as they had agreed to during training. In the early afternoon, they heard hurried footsteps coming their way. The boys readied their weapon, protecting Vannery between the two of us. Circuit (3) came running into their little encampment, which took him by surprise. He skidded to a halt and turned around as quickly as he’d arrived, leaving the trio dumbfounded.
Angelo and Alexandra had quite enough supplies to last a while. He held a sword in his hand and an “emergency axe” strapped to his back, while Alexandra held two knives. At first, they wanted to get away from the careers, but Alexandra eventually convinced Angelo to follow them from afar. They weren’t really hard to track, their bickering could be heard over the constant chatter of the birds. The noise also covered them. Proserpina, Glare and Perfecto were circling around the central clearing, slowly moving away from it. In the late afternoon, they discovered Forger (12) who was lying unconscious. He had received a deep wound during the bloodbath and was now at the mercy of the other tributes. Proserpina killed him.
The subsequent cannon surprised Vannery. She had climbed on top of a tree to get a view of the arena, and the sudden sound almost made her loose her grip. She didn’t fall, but while reaching her hand for a hold, she grabbed something warm and spherical. It crumbled and a viscous liquid dripped onto her finger. She looked up. She had inadvertently grabbed an egg from a nest. She was silent a moment, and a bright purple starling looked at her. “Oh no !” she whispered to herself. The bird screamed louder than she thought possible. Then it attacked.
All the birds in a radius of 50 feet coalesced into a multicolored tornado. Vannery fell to the ground, fortunately not hurting herself on the way down, and a feathery mass started clawing and pecking at her. They also attacked Carton and Rivage, who had been chilling at a distance. They batted the volatiles away, trying not to get scratched. Vannery managed to get up and run to the makeshift tent they had built. She picked up Carton’s lance and swung it, hitting some of the birds. She swung a second time and hit the metallic water bottle with a resounding CLANG! It seemed to stun the birds, but Vannery was too busy keeping them out of her face. Carton, however, noticed their reaction to the noise. He shouted loudly and flailed his arms : “Make noise ! They don’t like noise !”. Just his screaming was enough though. Eventually, the three tributes managed to drive the mutts out by hitting their weapons against rocks and the water bottle and screaming as loud as they could.
Delta also had an encounter with some angry birds. Those were red, with a long curvy beak and fearsome talons, but he managed to kill them all with a big branch he used as a bat. He then ate them, cooked over a small fire. Argus berated him for building a fire that could alert the other tributes to his location. However, the “Aviary Jungle” as it had been baptized by Urania Whimsiwick herself, was way too dense for anyone to see the smoke.
As the sun started to set, Delta squeezed himself back into his root hole, being careful to camouflage himself with moss. He held his branch in front of him just in case. An hour later, two cannons sounded in quick succession. They belonged to the pair from 10, who had had the great idea of making an omelet. The flock did not appreciate that…
When the sun started to set, Angelo suggested he and Alexandra find a place to sleep, preferably away from the career pack. She agreed, so they stopped following. They looked for a safe spot in the light of the dusk, eventually settling on the middle of a tight thicket. It was complicated to get inside, but the small space was comfortable, and the pair even had a view of the darkening sky. They ate some food then laid down, hand in hand. “Your district partner doesn’t seem to mind that you ditched her” joked Alexandra.
“I don’t think she cares. Maybe they believe I’m dead. But they’re not looking for us at least.”
“I think Delta is, though. You should have seen his face when he saw us. I almost feel bad about leading him on.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get rid of him if he isn’t dead yet.”
“I’m sure he’s feeling the same thing”, responded Alexandra before going to sleep. Angelo kept the first watch.
In another section of the arena, Carton took the first watch. He had spent the remaining hours of daylight cleaning his wounds, along with Rivage and Vannery. The two of them slept, hoping to feel better the next day.
A little before midnight, Rivage awoke. He came to sit next to Carton, and the boys talked about their families, their school. Suddenly, a cannon sounded. It belonged to Ulma (7), who had stumbled upon Quinoa’s (9) camp by accident. The younger girl had not hesitated to stab a pointy branch in Ulma’s throat. This cannon prompted Carton to go to sleep, Rivage taking second watch.
At midnight, the hymn of Panem resounded in the arena and the portraits of the 9 fallen appeared in the sky : Hattie (3), Sardine (4), Fraxen and Ulma (7), the boy (9), both (10), Ora and Forger (12). This left 17 tributes after an eventful and interesting day.
Day 2:
Delta didn’t sleep much that night. The uncomfortable position coupled with a strong headache meant that he was up before the sunrise. As the first hints of blue appeared to the east, Delta got up. He needed to occupy his mind. The moss had stuck to his clothes, and he decided to take advantage of it. He caked his face and hands in mud and used it to stick more moss to his clothes. Urania commented that he looked like a green Orang-utang, which prompted laughter in the Capitol. Once he was fully camouflaged, he started roaming the arena. Stealthily at first, but as the sun rose and the birds started their cacophony as well, he allowed himself to move a little faster.
Alexandra and her district partner had spent a restful night. As she awoke, she was surprised to be cuddling with Angelo. Her rousing awakened him, and he turned around to look at her, puzzled. “I guess you’re the little spoon”, she joked. They ate cereal bars in awkward silence. Soon, the voices of the career pack walking in their direction prompted the pair to hide. Proserpina and Perfecto were loudly arguing about someone stealing their water bottles. Unbeknownst to them, it had been Glare who had hidden them in her own bag.
As they moved away from her, Alexandra suggested they follow the trio like the day before. Angelo thought it was a safe strategy as long as they kept their distances. They made their way out of the thorny thicket and followed. A few minutes later, a scream warned them that something was going on. It was Glare (1). She’d walked into a trap laid by Georges the day before and was now hanging upside down from a rope. Perfecto started to help her, but the stolen bottles fell from her bag, along with a few hidden knives and more food. Instead of killing her, as Perfecto wanted to do, Proserpina convinced him to leave her there. She screamed and screamed. Proserpina and Perfecto left her there wiggling. Before Alexandra and Angelo could arrive, the thin rope holding up Glare by the ankle snapped. She fell headfirst on the ground and her cannon sounded. Alexandra winced, but Angelo told her that it was better this way, since you could survive for many hours hanging this way. Then another cannon sounded.
Delta had been unsuccessful for a few hours. He had avoided a couple of poorly made traps and fought off a flock of tiny yellow canaries but had been unable to find another tribute. Eventually, he decided to change tactics. He found a path that clearly looked like it was in use and hid in proximity. His ambush eventually worked. Lavandine (11) walked past him, clutching a meagre stick in her pale hands. She didn’t even notice him getting up and following her, his branch raised. Many viewers thought it looked cartoonish, the tiny girl, followed by a big man with a club, not noticing anything. Glare’s cannon gave him the signal he expected, and he swung at her head. Lavandine flew and crashed into a patch of ferns. Her head was bloody, but she was still alive. Delta walked up to her in order to finish what he had started. The cameras cut to another group of tributes.
For the whole morning, Vannery, Rivage and Carton had been staying put. They foraged, fished, and built rudimentary spears just in case. Vannery climbed trees, very carefully in order not to disturb any more birds, so she could spot any tributes. Eventually she did, a little after midday. The pair from district 5 was heading their way. They were armed.
Vannery transmitted the information to the boys, who debated leaving or fighting. “Let’s fight !” said Vannery. There were 3 of them against 2, and they had weapons. Carton had his lance, Rivage his trident, and her… a spear and a rock would do the trick. So, they waited for what felt like a century. As soon as Borea and Zapp entered their field of vision, they attacked. The pair was surprised, but not enough to let themselves be killed that easily. Borea shouted at Zapp to run while she fended of Rivage’s trident with her sword. She had wrapped metal coil all around her arms, as she had seen on one of the older games. They clashed for an instant, enough time for her to disarm him, and then she ran too. On the way, she threw an egg she’d hidden in her pocket to the group. A flock of angry sparrows was the distraction the pair from 5 needed to escape.
Proserpina and Perfecto seemed to have made up a little and were now actively hunting. Still, they weren’t aware of the couple _ the “double A couple” as they were now called in the Capitol _ following them from afar. They dared not speak, but the looks they shared meant a lot more. They say love makes you blind, and maybe that’s why Alexandra didn’t see the orange and turquoise pheasant she walked on. It screamed and ran away, catching the attention of Proserpina. She turned around and shouted, “I knew it !” before charging at Angelo and her ally. Her first axe hit a tree a few inches above Alexandra’s head. She was hesitant to fight a career, but Angelo had already jumped into the fray and was now battling his district partner. So, she ran at Perfecto, who was lagging behind. He quickly turned around and sprinted when Proserpina’s cannon sounded. Angelo had managed to stab her in the gut. The look of betrayal was still printed on her face as the hovercraft claw took her away.
The pair was unsure if they needed to pursue the boy from 1, as Angelo assured that he was an “ego-inflated wimp” . Instead, they rifled through the bag Proserpina had dropped and decided to rest a little. They could have stayed there longer if it hadn’t been for the fire…
After getting rid of the birds, the trio decided to keep following Zapp and Borea (5) in order to get their supplies. Vannery managed to track them thanks to their footprints and the trail of broken branches. They found them quite quickly. Indeed, the gamemakers had decided to trigger a forest fire in order to move the tributes around a little. This explained why they had seen so many birds flying away. The pair from 5, however, had found themselves cornered on three sides by the flames, and the last side was where Carton and his allies arrived from.
Rivage thrusted his trident straight into Borea’s back, sounding her cannon. Carton’s lance, however, flew past Zapp and into the fiery inferno. The boy from 4 barely had the time to pick up his trident before a tree fell, smashing into the boy from 5 and sounding his cannon. As other trees started to creak and groan, Vannery led the boys back to the creek, where she believed the water would keep them safe.
Delta ran as soon as he smelled smoke. He ended up in a small clearing in the Southern part of the arena. As the grass quickly burned, he jumped into the flames. Many viewers gasped, thinking he had just killed himself, but he just ran a few seconds then stopped. Argus explained that the fire had been controlled in a way that it burned quickly and extinguished itself just as fast. From his spot of scorched earth, Delta was safe for now. From the sky descended a small silver parachute bearing the number 6. It contained a water bottle and some aspirin. Delta was the only one to use this strategy successfully. A few minutes after him, Circuit (3), who was shorter and weaker, tried. He fell face first into the fire and did not get up, his cannon sounding a few moments later.
Angelo and Alexandra were some of the closest to the central clearing, so it was after the three cannons that the fire reached them. They ran. Angelo was practically flying but the fire was catching up to Alexandra. Another tree cracked. It crashed onto the girl, pinning her legs to the ground. Thankfully, it was a much younger tree, and it did not cause her much more damage. For an instant, Alexandra thought the boy from 2 would just keep running. That he would be glad to get rid of yet another opponent. But he turned around. He used his axe as a lever, bending it in the process, to get the girl free. Then he picked her up onto his back and ran again. Angelo was not a very muscular tribute, but he proved to be quite a strong one.
Neither Carton, nor his allies had suffered any injury thanks to Vannery’s quick thinking. The creek was wide enough to protect them from the flames, and they avoided any falling branch. Quinoa (9) had had the same idea. She internally debated reaching the small group, but eventually decided not to. In the late afternoon, it started to rain, revealing that many of the trees and plants of the forest were actually fireproof. It was much sparser now, but the rain cleaned off the soot and, soon enough, the forest was green again.
Rivage, Vannery and Carton huddled together. They stayed that way for the whole evening, until Carton took the first watch while the other two went to sleep.
Delta was almost unharmed too, apart from a few minor burns on his ankles. The aspirin had taken effect, and for once in a long time, he felt totally clear headed. He hoped his district partner had died today.
The fire had changed the landscape quite a lot. What used to be a lush jungle was now less green. The ground was visible in most places, and the humidity levels had gone down. The sky was more visible. It also meant that the traps set by Georges and Odette (N) on the first day were either destroyed or very conspicuous. The boy from 6 avoided them all.
Delta found a pond where he cleaned himself from the soot and the half-charred moss. The fresh water also soothed his burns. He ended up settling close by, between two fallen trees.
Angelo and Alexandra, however, had suffered many burns. Fortunately, as they were setting camp and trying to remove their singed clothes, a silver parachute descended over them. It contained two containers of oil, as well as a blanket and a note from Angelo’s mentors, which he did not show to Alexandra. It would later be revealed that it scolded him for keeping his plan of betraying the career pack secret. The oil was perfumed and designed to almost instantly heal burns. It worked a charm. As the massaging continued, the two tributes started to get more and more steamy. They were intimate that night.
While they were busy, the portraits of the fallen appeared in the sky. The second day of the games had seen the loss of Glare (1), Proserpina (2), Circuit (3), Borea and Zapp (5), and Lavandine (11). This left only 11 tributes for the third day, with better odds now that a few strong tributes were gone.
Day 3:
On the morning of the third day, an announcement was made by Head Gamemaker Vishwa. She informed the tributes that a feast would be held at noon, three hours from now. The 11 surviving boys and girls would find supplies they desperately needed there. She then wished everyone a glorious day and the dampened sound of the birdsongs came back in full force.
The announcement awoke Delta, but he decided not to go to the Feast. He still had food and a source of water nearby, as well as his heavy branch. A real weapon would have been nice, but he didn’t feel safe going to the central clearing. Instead, he decided to just sleep more. He only woke up again when the first cannon sounded.
As for the couple, they were lost in bliss. Their show from the previous night had to be censored, although it was available for those who had enough “connections”. Let’s just say that it was quite memorable, and cemented Angelo and Alexandra’s place as favorites. They got ready after a long cuddling session, grabbing their bags and their weapons and heading to the cornucopia. They arrived with minutes to spare. Actually, they were the last tributes to arrive.
Vannery had been the first on site, scouting for other tributes. Once she had been sure the coast was clear, she had signaled to Rivage and Carton that they could come. They hid in the bushes nearby; this area having been spared from the fires. Little by little, other tributes started to arrive. Kumquat (11) hid behind a tree, Perfecto (1) stood in the open, Odette and Georges (N) huddled together.
As Quinoa (9) and the “Double A couple” finally arrived, the cornucopia started receding into the ground. It reappeared at once, and a bell rang.
Vannery stayed behind. She watched all the tributes run to the center where laid 8 numbered bags, including Carton and Rivage. The fighting raged in the cornucopia. Her allies attacked Alexandra and Angelo, as Kumquat escaped with his bag. Quinoa (9) almost got out, but Perfecto (1) caught her by the ponytail and stabbed her in the throat, sounding her cannon. He then picked up her bag in addition to his.
Alexandra and Angelo fought side to side, covering each other. She scared Odette (N) away, while he pushed back against Rivage. The boy from 4 tried to hit Alexandra again, but her ally caught the trident and almost tore it out of Rivage’s hands. Instead of trying again, he attacked Georges. The trident hit him in the back and sounded his cannon a few seconds later. Angelo took advantage of this distraction to slash at Carton with his sword, causing the boy from 8 to bleed out.
Vannery screamed and ran out of her hiding place, almost colliding with Odette (N) on the way. Rivage grabbed the district 4 and district 8 bags in one hand, and Vannery’s arm in the other, and they ran away together. The young girl cried and struggled to keep up the pace. She wanted to go back, but Carton’s cannon sounded, ruining her hopes.
Angelo and Alexandra were the last tributes to get their bags. One of Perfecto’s knives punctured Alexandra’s. The pair turned back, giving Kumquat (11) enough time to flee. They chased Perfecto into the woods. He was quick, however, and they had a hard time gaining on him.
The following hours were very quiet, boring, even, so Urania and Argus invited a few guests to discuss the bloodbath and the tributes’ different strategies. It was only in the late afternoon that Delta deigned getting up. He was well rested. He ate what remained of his food and started camouflaging himself once again in order to hunt. The tributes were now very spread out, however, and it appeared that Delta was in an area devoid of them. He walked until it got too dark to continue, before letting out a scream of rage. His sudden outburst scared some resting birds. They flew away and hit Kumquat (11) square in the face as he was in the process of climbing up one of the taller trees. The surprise caused him to lose his grip and he fell to his death a few feet away from Delta, his Feast bag laying next to him. Suddenly, Delta laughed and thanked the birds. He emptied the contents of the bag, glad to find some fresh food and water. He settled right there for the night.
Angelo and Alexandra eventually gave up on hunting Perfecto. Every time they thought they heard him; it turned out to be another bird. He was nowhere to be found. The pair settled down near a creek, right where Carton and his allies had camped earlier, in order to clean themselves. It was another spectacle to behold. The couple played in the fresh water, wearing only their underwear, and at one point, Alexandra winked at one of the cameras. This resulted in the appearance of a sponsor gift a few seconds later. She caught it and opened it discreetly once she was dressed again. She checked that Angelo was busy with the campfire before peeking inside. There was a water bottle and a tiny, sheathed stiletto knife, about two inches long. There was also a note that said : “You will only get one chance” – S. She acted nonchalant, thanked her sponsor for the water, and hid the knife in her sock. She took the first watch, jumping when a cannon sounded.
Since they had come back from the Feast, Vannery felt that Rivage was acting strange. He kept pacing and muttering to himself and seemed unhappy even though they had received enough supplies to last five more days in the arena at least. They found another place to sleep, Vannery built a new shelter. As she was about to go to sleep, Rivage approached her, trident in hand. He didn’t speak, so she asked him what he wanted. “I’m sorr-“ he started. Vannery interrupted him : “Behind you !”.
He spun around and threw his trident. It caught Perfecto in the head, sounding his cannon before he had hit the ground. He had been sneaking up behind Rivage with a knife in both hands, but Vannery had a keen eye. Rivage seemed to deflate. He cleaned up his weapon and went to sleep. Vannery tried to ask him what he wanted to tell her, but he didn’t answer. Instead, she took the first watch.
At midnight, five portraits appeared in the sky : Perfecto (1), Carton (8), Quinoa (9), Kumquat (11) and Georges (N). The six remaining tributes were spread out around the arena : Rivage and Vannery to the East, Angelo and Alexandra to the North, Odette (N) in the South and Delta to the West.
Day 4:
The sound of a cannon startled Delta out of his slumber. He was feeling well rested and decided to head to the cornucopia with just his branch and a knife he had taken from Kumquat. With only 5 remaining tributes, he knew that the showdown was about to take place and was about as excited as the viewers in the Capitol for it to happen. On the way, he stumbled upon a suspicious mound of leaves. He almost let it be, until he saw two feet poking out of it. As he bent down to look at it, a sharp pain entered his shoulder blade. By pure reflex, he swung his club backwards, hitting a barefoot Odette (N) in the forehead. She stumbled backwards, clutching her knife, and tripped on a rock. Delta jumped onto her, planting his knee in her stomach, and stabbed her with her own knife. He added it to his “collection”.
The atmosphere between Alexandra and Angelo had been quite tense since they’d woken up. They hadn’t slept so well. When the first cannon sounded, they set out to get to the cornucopia, and by the time the second cannon echoed throughout the arena, they were in position. “We’ll fight together, right ?” asked Alexandra. Angelo nodded solemnly : “Until there’s no one else. I’m so glad I got to meet you.”
“Me too… Too bad one of us will have to die.”
As she said those words, a twig cracked in a nearby bush.
The first cannon had shocked the viewers quite a bit. As Rivage finished his watch, he looked at Vannery, asleep next to him. He murmured “I’m sorry”, so low that it had to be subtitled. Then he plunged his trident in her throat. Before leaving, Rivage let out the longest sigh of relief.
Alexandra climbed onto the cornucopia, hiding herself, a length of rope held tight between her hands. She waited as Rivage entered the clearing. He was focused on Angelo. Delta appeared a few seconds later, on the other side of the cornucopia. He walked under it, oblivious to the girl awaiting him. As Angelo charged Rivage with his sword, Alexandra lowered the rope. Delta let out a choked growl as she pulled. He was much stronger, however. With one labored step, he yanked her off the roof. The rope was still around his neck, but his hands were now around Alexandra’s. Nevertheless, she held on to the rope, using it to hold him at bay. Just before she fell unconscious, she kicked him in the groin. She let out a few coughs, before grabbing the two ends of the rope again and pulling Delta against one of the steel columns of the cornucopia. Delta tried to stab her, but she was behind him, and he was quickly loosing consciousness. With one last brutal pull, the rope crushed his windpipe.
Alexandra watched Angelo dispose of Rivage with one final feint of his sword, and his cannon sounded at the same time as Delta’s.
Silence fell on the clearing. Even the birds had shut up. The couple was breathing heavily. They hugged tight. Something glinted in Alexandra’s hand. She almost reached Angelo’s neck when he gripped her wrist. He smiled, but his eyes were full of sorrow. “I had to try at least !” she half-laughed, half-whimpered. He sat her down and hugged her once again. She told him that he deserved to win. That he was a good man. He took his swords and gently stabbed Alexandra in the heart. She barely cried as he looked into her eyes. A cannon sounded. The last one. Jahani Vishwa announced Angelo Clearfell, of district 2, as the victor of the 119th Hunger Games. He had to be forcefully removed form Alexandra’s corpse in order to be retrieved.
Aftermath:
The games took an immense toll on Angelo, who was unable to speak for more than a month. Even when he had gotten the use of his words back, he fell into a lengthy depression. His interview with Urania Whimsiwick and Argus Brown had to be cut short as soon as they mentioned Alexandra.
After that, he remained alone in his home of the Victor’s village. He received no guests and did not act as a mentor the following years. The other victors of his district described him as “disillusioned” and “a killjoy”. The situation stayed the same until his disappearance two years later.

I just picked up this game a while ago, and damn it was brutal. Until now, there isn't a single boss or even a mini-boss that i've beaten other than Chained Ogre (whom I beat by cheesing in a safe spot) and Giant Snake which is more like a stealth sequence than an actual combat. I'm at Gyoubu Oniwa right now, and I just can't find a way to beat him. Even General Naomori, literally the first miniboss in the game designed to teach me the basics, can effortlessly stomp me and I can't even get his health bar to half. I have most prosthetics and skills i'm supposed to have up until now, including firecracker, flame vent, axe, shuriken, mikiri counter, whirlwind slash, etc.
After searching for walkthrough, I still can't figure out what I did wrong. there's definitely something I missed in the combat system. I'm pretty sure I know how to parry and Mikiri counter and stuff, But I just can't seem to get them consistently working. When I fought Naomori and Gyoubu, I tried to right click to parry, but I only succeed 4 out of 10 times and most often I just get slashed to death almost instantly. I know what a perilous attack is and I never tried to parry them, I only tried to parry normal attacks, yet I still fail to do so most of the time and end up taking massive damage.
About Mikiri Counter, it's even harder to do for me, When I trained with Hanbei I succeed most of the time, and can quite figure out how to do it, but when I put it to practice with Enshin, I just can't get Mikiri Counter to work, no matter how I tried to press shift+forward when he strikes, The counter just won't land and he just skewers me to death.
Maybe it's because the game is laggy for me and only runs at an extremely low fps? I tried to search for tutorials to optimize but no matter what setting I use the game is still very laggy. My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkbook. Maybe optimizing the game correctly would help? Please tell me if there's a way to make the game run smoother.
And if it's just my skills issue, please tell me what can I do to improve my parrying skills. Though I think the problem mainly lies in the framerate.

It's finally there... I really liked writing this one.
The 119th Hunger Games took place in the year 155. The past few months had been quite tense following the events in district N. After the terrorist attacks, more and more inhabitants started voicing their ire and demanding to be returned to their primitive ways. By some unknown means, they managed to communicate with districts 12 and 3, where some acts of defiance were noticed. Fortunately, a greater influx of peacekeepers helped keep the situation manageable.
However, it was under greater surveillance that Annie Sandler, victor of the 118th Hunger Games, officiated the reapings. The additional measures included more peacekeepers as well as a systematic search of anyone entering the reaping square. Annie was relieved to leave district N, continuing the reapings on the following days.
In the afternoon of the second day, a disheveled Annie arrived in district 8. Being quite late due to all the security precautions, she was allowed to skip the visit of a new rug factory. Mayor Smith seemed a little disappointed as he welcomed her.
Without wasting any time, the young woman approached the big glass bowl and picked a random slip of paper. She called up Vannery Gleason to the stage. The 13 years old girl stood at the front of the enclosure. When she heard her name, she almost fainted. Two other girls brought her to the nearest peacekeepers, and they helped her up. She was tiny, with a short mane of messy blond hair and a long pointy nose.
While Vannery cowered between the peacekeepers, Annie picked a name from the male reaping bowl, quickly settling on 16 years old Carton Abbassi. The boy walked to the front of the enclosure, expressionless, his terra cotta colored skin ever so slightly paling. He shook hands with the victor and the mayor and stood next to Vannery. He nervously played with his long black hair while mayor Smith gave a closing speech and urged the citizens to go back to their work.
The pair were urged to their holding rooms within the city hall, where they could only meet with two people due to the security measures taking place. For the entire time that was allotted, Vannery cried in her older sister’s lap. Her face was dirty with tears and dust, and when her sister tried to wipe them, it became even more stained due to the dyes she worked with all day long. They did not exchange many words, only hugging tightly and attempting to reassure each other. They both cried as they were separated because they only had each other.
Carton kept his calm. His stoic attitude was shared with his father and grandfather. The three men spoke almost casually about Carton’s reaping. They had been very aware of the possibility of it happening. They shared some advice and spoke a bit about the mentor of district 8, who lived almost as a recluse in her house. Carton hugged his relatives before heading to the train station, where a sniffling Vannery was already waiting.
Organza Duval (victor of the 105th Hunger Games) waited for them in the carriage, her ample form towering over the both of them. The thirty years old woman seemed in a strangely joyful mood, which could probably be explained by her co-mentor and sworn enemy Kaplan Templesmith dying of old age a week earlier. She welcomed the tributes, inviting them to get comfortable, while an avox brought food on the table. Organza warned them to be reasonable with the food in order not to get sick, advice which they both followed.
Carton was the most talkative of the two, although he was humble and well meaning. Before all, he proposed to ally with Vannery. The girl nodded wearily and continued nibbling on her celery stalk. He then talked about his family’s hat business. He was realistic about his chances, having no useful skill in the arena. “I had no skill either, you know. It’s all about luck, explained Organza. If it wasn’t, the careers would win every year”.
During the rest of the train ride, they watched Organza’s games. Vannery started asking more questions and participating in the conversation. As the train approached the Capitol, she went to the bathroom in order to clean herself up a little. She got rid of all but the blue smudge on her cheek.
When they finally arrived in Crane station, there wasn’t much of a crowd waiting for them. Organza was a very unpopular victor, and district 8 didn’t have a great track record. As their mentor stood in the background, almost hiding behind her afro, Vannery and Carton shyly shook a few hands and signed a few notebooks.
The greetings didn’t last long, and the tributes climbed into the limousine waiting for them. Once they were settled in their apartment, their stylist came to meet them. She was the angles to Organza’s curves, skinny and tall. Platonia Travers intimidated Vannery and Carton immediately. She gave them an intense look-over before claiming that she had seen enough and would be there tomorrow at 7 am sharp. The mentor reassured their mentees, saying that Platonia was severe but was “one of the few with a heart”.
She indeed came back the next morning at 7, accompanied by two associates who took the tributes’ measurements. While they were being manhandled, Organza turned on the television to watch the reaping in district 6.
It was much cloudier than the day before in district 6, which was not helped by the heavy smoke that hung in the air. Urania Whimsiwick, who had been joined again by her former co-host Argus Brown, complained about mayor Karpov’s long-winded speech. He eventually stopped, out of breath but with a smug look on his face. Annie proceeded to pick the female tribute, after which the smug look melted off mayor Karpov’s face. “Alexandra Karpov”, she called. A 17-year-old girl gasped and stifled a cry of despair. She had long chestnut hair that dangled down to her lower back and a very pretty face. She looked at the mayor, who happened to be her father, in despair. He avoided her gaze.
Feeling the tension, Annie hurried to pick the male tribute. She called 18 years old Delta Rossini to the stage. There was a short pause before a lumbering young man with dark hair and dark eyes made his way to the front. His gait was unsteady, Argus speculating that it was because of the morphling.
Mayor Karpov cut his closing speech short in order to join his daughter in the city Hall. She stood in the middle of the room, distraught, while her father and her mother (who had just arrived) hugged her tightly. Alexandra wept with them for a while. Then, she seemed to get herself back together, and she told her parents to be strong for her. There wasn’t much else to talk about, and none of them had any useful advice to share.
Meanwhile, Delta snored inside his holding room. His mother had come to see him but had promptly left when she understood that he was under the influence. He only woke up once the peacekeepers came to collect him, which made him grumpy. He barely acknowledged his district partner. They climbed into the carriage, only to be welcomed by the grumpy faces of their mentors, Sean Callahan and Halifax Devon (victor of the 111th Hunger Games).
Sean invited the pair to sit at a table, to which Alexandra promptly obliged. Delta, on the other hand slumped into a sofa. “Don’t worry, he’ll wake up when the drugs stop working. Right now, he’s high as a Capitolite’s hat.” Claimed Halifax. “I’ll get him through the withdrawal, you two go on.» Then he left, avoiding his female mentee’s gaze.
“So, your father is the mayor ?” asked Sean, trying to strike up a conversation. She nodded. There wasn’t much else to say, Alexandra thought. She could write, and count, and knew a lot about Panem’s history. She knew that it wouldn’t help her in the arena though. Sean told her that it was okay. All she needed was to keep her wits to herself. He showed her reels of past victors who had had no former training but instead relied on their intelligence or were just lucky.
When the train arrived in Crane station, Delta had just emerged from his slumber. Halifax sat in front of him. He gave him a pill and a glass of water, which the boy took without hesitation. It helped calm the headache. Now that he was more or less sober, Delta finally realized the situation he was in. His mentor ordered him to keep calm, and that they would think of a strategy once they were done with the parade.
The welcome was relatively warm, although it was still earlier in the morning. The sparse crowd gravitated more towards Alexandra, who appeared more “civilized” to them. She spoke to them politely, being used to wealthier people. She wished to follow her father’s footsteps. Delta was a little clumsier with his interactions, but still well behaved considering the situation. Halifax and Sean shook a few hands too, and they all made their way to the accommodation center.
Perseus Allfield, their stylist waited for them in the apartment. The pair didn’t have the time to take in their surroundings that they were being measured by half a dozen seamstresses. It appeared that Perseus had already chosen the pair’s outfit for tonight’s parade. While they were being dressed, Alexandra couldn’t help but notice that people frequently came to knock at the door, asking for random things. She could swear she saw Halifax hand a piece of paper to Alix Goldberg, who had come to ask for deodorant.
Parade :
Carton and Vannery hesitantly went down to the stables on the night of the parade. They both wore pantsuits made of a heavy embroidered fabric. It was itchy and rigid, like a rug, and of course entirely black and white. Organza hadn’t accompanied them, since she was busy discussing with another stylist, Garner Townsend. At least, Carton said, they didn’t look as ridiculous as the pair from 9. Vannery, instead of looking back, stared at the careers, who were already creating a pack. The four of them approached the tributes from 4, but Sardine and Rivage seemed to refuse their proposal.
Two chariots over, Alexandra struggled to climb into her carriage. Delta helped her up, giving her a crooked smile. She thanked him awkwardly. The pair’s outfits were indeed incredibly heavy, made out of slowly rotating gears. Making them work had been an excruciating ordeal. Between them and the pair from 8 was the carriage of district 7. Sean came over to them, kissing his fiancé, Edmund Carrell, passionately. Ulma and Fraxen did not react, nor did they respond to Carton waving at them.
Soon enough, the parade began, with Argus Brown leaving his seat to head of Anderson fashion Corneo Anderson alongside Urania Whimsiwick. Both were unhinged that night, and they tore apart almost every outfit. Perfecto and Glare’s (1) were too shiny, Hattie (3) looked like she had tried to wear her grandma’s dress, and they even made fun of the pair from 5, even though they ended up winning best dressed this year.
Delta and Alexandra followed right after, in what Corneo Anderson described as “a pair of ambulatory scrapyards”. The girl tried her best to smile through the ordeal, and waved even though her arm was 15 pounds heavier than usual. She held on to Delta, who had turned as grey as the steel he was wearing. Halifax had helped him deal with the withdrawal symptoms, but the moving cart was still very harrowing to him.
Carton and Vannery did not make much of an impression. They waved and smiled, but very few people actually paid attention to them. They were too busy laughing at the pair from 9, whose straw outfits were indeed hilarious.
The carriages then all made their way to the end of the Avenue of The Tributes, where President Crane gave her annual opening speech. This time, she spoke about peace. She asked the rebelling districts to think of their future. Of their children. She said that unity was the only way to move forward as a nation. That everyone had to do their part.
Some tributes were seen scoffing, but no punitive actions were taken against this display of defiance. Instead, President Crane wished everyone a happy Hunger Games and dismissed them. Everyone came back to their accommodations, where they prepared for bed.
This year, even Organza Duval attended to the rooftop party, where she remained with Alix Goldberg and Solano Luongo for the entire time. Other tributes such as Galvany Driscoll and Orlando Cascade occasionally joined them for a chat. Their conversations could not be heard over the loud music unfortunately.
Training :
Training began on the next morning. Waking up proved a tough affair for Delta, who had been suffering for the entire night. His fever had dropped thanks to some special medicine his mentor had given him, but the ache in his muscles remained. Even speaking caused him pain. Nevertheless, he endured and pushed through in order to make it downstairs. Carmelo Harrington, the head trainer, gave him a disapproving look before starting his usual warning speech.
As soon as the speech ended, Delta asked Alexandra to be his ally, since they were district partners. She gave him a once over, then reluctantly agreed. He suggested they train at the survival station, but she told him she needed to be alone for a while. He went by himself, and clumsily learned to build a fire. No other tribute seemed willing to approach his station, so he spent the next couple of days unimpeded.
While her district partner fluttered from station to station, Alexandra spent the almost entirety of the first day learning to fight with a knife, then a sword. She had obviously no experience, but thanks to the help of the trainer, she managed to improve a lot in such a short amount of time. She beat Odette (N) and Kumquat (11). Seeing she was a little too confident to her taste, Proserpina (2) challenged her too. This fight Alexandra lost almost immediately, and while trying to avoid another one of the girl’s strikes, she fell backwards onto Angelo (2). They tumbled down. He helped her get back up, which annoyed the rest of the career pack even more.
For the next day and a half, Alexandra and Angelo always seemed to end up in the same stations. They tried to speak a little but every time another member of the career pack interrupted them. On the last day of training, Angelo asked the girl if she wanted to join him (in the alliance of course !). She knew the others did not want her and told him so. She was right. He thought a moment before saying that they could find a way to work together.
While this surprising friendship was taking place, Carton and Vannery trained together. They mostly kept to the survival stations, not having the confidence to handle weapons. In the textile station, they encountered Sardine and Rivage (4) who taught them to make fishing nets in exchange of them showing them ways to build a textile-based shelter. They hit it off so well that they agreed to work together in the arena. Rivage and Sardine were both tall and strong fighters. They taught a bit of fighting skills to the pair from 8, but Carton was much more adept at recognizing toxic plants, while Vannery excelled at weaving and basketry.
At the end of the training, the tributes were gathered in order to be evaluated. After Zapp (5), Alexandra was called inside the Black room. She was nervous but managed to keep her trembling in check. She asked for a trainer to be brought in so she could demonstrate her knife fighting skills. She showed decent improvement, although she got tired quite quickly. She exited the Black room with a satisfied smirk.
Delta followed her, and he was quite angry. He didn’t understand why his ally refused to train with him even though she constantly reassured him that they still would work together in the arena. The assessment was a perfect way to vent out his anger. He grabbed various weights and threw them around. He broke a few mannequins with his display of strength. After that little controlled tantrum, he felt better.
Some time later, Fraxen (7) exited the room and Vannery was called in. For some time, she fought against a fainting spell, which made her loose precious time. Some of the assessors were already going back to the buffet. Eventually, she weaved a piece of armor out of wicker in a record time. No one was watching her anymore though, so she climbed up a pillar to get to the upper floor, shocking the assessors with her stealth and dexterity. In the end, they barely even noticed her weaving.
Carton followed. He was undecided as to what he should show the assessors. He tried a bit of everything, with unconclusive results. Once he got back to the apartment, Organza reassured him, saying that the training scores didn’t mean anything.
While they were being dressed for that evening’s interviews, the tributes watched their training scores being announced. As was usual, the career pack scored the best points, with Glare and Perfecto (1) getting an 11, followed by Angelo, Proserpina (2) and Rivage (4) who got a 10.
There were quite a few decent scorers this year, with a 9 being given to Ulma (7) and Delta. Following them with an 8 were Alexandra and Vannery as well as Fraxen (7), Borea (5) and Georges (N). Carton got a mediocre 5, which was not as terrible as he had thought but still not very high. He shared this score with Zapp (5).
Interviews:
That evening, the interviews took place in a full to the brim Ravinstill hall. Urania Whimsiwick and Argus Brown welcomed the audience and were given a thunder of applause. They had coordinated their outfits to wear clothes typical of tourists. Urania’s turquoise sundress and wide brimmed straw hat reminded viewers of the bright sea and the thatch parasols, while Argus wore a flowy shirt with a tiger fur pattern and bedazzled flip flops. The crowd roared with laughter when Urania poured a glass of champagne for each of them and promised Argus not to attack him with the bottle.
The first interview was that of Glare (1), who proved to be as sharp and dry as she looked. Her district partner Perfecto was friendlier at first, but many Capitolites found him very whiny. Proserpina (2) was almost identical to Glare, and only Angelo appeared to have a semblant of heart, which experts later debated could be his downfall.
The hosts went down the list of tributes, the panel this year being very diverse. The pairs from districts 4 and 5 were among the favorites this year, with charismatic duos. Eventually, it was time for Alexandra to enter, clad in a light grey silk gown. Her long hair had been braided with silver thread, and she was positively stunning. She also appeared at ease on stage, answering Urania’s questions and jokingly flirting with Argus. She was asked about her unlikely friendship with Angelo (2), but like he had earlier, she responded that he had been nothing more than a friendly opponent. Argus then asked about her family, as another Karpov had participated in the 111th Games. Alexandra barely knew her, as she was from another branch of the family.
Once her imparted time was over, Alexandra left the stage, followed by cheers and applause. Delta entered, wearing a suit of the same color as her dress, although it did not fit him that well. He looked at the hosts’ outfits with confusion. Urania had to repeat her first question three times to snap him out of his trance, and it soon appeared that Delta was not in his element. He answered the next questions on the first try, but in a robotic voice. Urania, Argus, as well as the viewers, quickly grew bored of the boy, who only seemed to wake up to complain about his district partner refusing to spend time with him. He received some polite applause as he left the stage and Ulma entered.
After Fraxen’s underwhelming interview, Vannery was asked on stage. She had been given a pink and crème tulle dress, Urania commenting that she looked like a “particularly appetizing cupcake”. Vannery wobbled on stage and to her chair. She managed not to faint, which in itself was a miracle, but it was clear that she was terrified. Argus asked her about her strategy for the arena, and she said that she had allies she could count on, and that her small frame could help her hide quite easily. In the end, she had managed to endear herself to the Capitol, even though her winning odds were still of 1 to 60.
Carton followed Vannery, clad in a mauve tuxedo, his dark mane neatly attached. He appeared more confident than his district partner. After a short round of compliments, the interview really started. Unfortunately for him, Carton did not have a lot to say about himself. He had no passion, no funny anecdote to talk about, so after the usual questioning, the hosts decided to end the interview. Later, Urania would comment that the only thing interesting about Carton was his hair.
The interviews continued on, with Quinoa (9) asking the hosts for a glass of champagne, Lavandine (11) running out of the stage after a whopping 12 seconds and her district partner Kumquat raving about Capitolite cuisine for 15 minutes. Only the cousins from district N, Georges and Odette, made a better impression. Although they were both homely and physically unremarkable, they proved to be good strategists and survivalists.
Before closing the ceremony, Head Gamemaker Jahani Vishwa was invited to talk a little about her work. She reviewed last year’s arena, which had now been turned into a holiday destination, then gave an exposé about the weather in the arenas and how it was controlled. As always, Jahani Vishwa refused to say anything but a single hint : for this arena, the biggest challenge had been redesigning the microphones. Then, Argus and Urania wished everyone a Happy Hunger Games.

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TL;DR Are all LARPS just a paid reenactment of highschool with bullies who pick if you get to hang or be excluded or did I just pick the odd one out to start at?
Hi everyone. My friends and I have gone to this LARP for a couple events and have had a bad experience so far. It's a small one (100ish ppl) and it feels like a highschool clique. There's a group of folks who have been there the longest who have seemed to think they are the main characters and we all exist to further their story. Our little group has been pretty austrosized from the start and our attempts to fit in have been ignored. They claim to be a welcoming place but because we are different I guess that rule doesn't apply.
Because of our frustration sometimes when we get together we talk a big game about taking over the world even though we won't. We met a friend who was also new and began hanging out with her. At one point while hanging out we joked about kidnapping her character to convince her (the character) to join our guild. She laughed. We laughed. We all continued hanging out for weeks after. Well what seems to have happened is since she was able to get in with the "old guard" as we call them, she mentioned the joke in passing and one of the old guard members went to staff and now my boyfriend and our (male) buddy are getting grilled by a staff member about our "kidnapping plot". When I say grilled I mean it. They are talking to them like they're police investigating an actual kidnapping not friends joking around. They are two big teddy bears of dudes for context. I am an AFAB enby and have not received the interrogation treatment. Now we are afraid we will be banned for goofing off with a friend OUTSIDE OF ANY LARP EVENT. Our friend even says she has no beef with us and is gonna be part of our fort we are building this weekend for LARP. The worst part might be that this LARP is connected to a game store where we spend a lot of time at and I fear that people will get snarky and we will be treated like criminals there too.
It's just so frustrating since it seems every week a new disappointment about the event comes up and I don't do well with constant expectation subversion. I've spent so much time and money for what's gonna end up being a one day event where we will never really be a part of the community. Is this normal? Do most larps have a small core group that decides if you can hang or not? I feel like I'm back in highschool except this time I'm paying for the privilege to get excluded and judged.

After lots of correction, I got ChatGPT to play the game Beauty Contest. This is the economics game played in Netflix's "Alice in Borderland" for the King of Diamond's game. -- The toughest part of this is that ChatGPT isn't great at math, which surprises me. It kept making mistakes.
Also, I should have assigned myself a role: Player1 or something. It seems to have gotten confused when my name started as YOU and became "ME" later".
Here is the exchange
We are going to play a game called "Beauty Contest". We start with 6 players in this game. You will play the roles of Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn, and I will play myself. Each person will guess a number from 0 - 100. The person who is closest to 2/3 of the mean will win 1 point. In case of a tie, one person among the tied winners gets the point. After three iterations, the person with the lowest score drops out (in case of a tie, one person from the lowest score group is chosen at random). When someone drops out, they say "I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye". We play until there is only one person left - that person is declared the winner. I will continue to watch to the end until there is a winner, even if I leave first. So, when we start, you will choose numbers for each of your 5 characters without telling me and then prompt me for my number. After I give you my number, you will calculate 0.67*(the mean). And whomever is closest gets a point (or you assign the point randomly amongst the tied winners). If you understand these rules, say "ready to play" and then start.ChatGPT
I understand the rules of the game "Beauty Contest." I will play the roles of Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn. We will proceed with the game as per the described rules.
Ready to play.
Please provide your number for the first round.
📷📷33ChatGPT
Thank you for your number. Now, I will calculate 2/3 of the mean of the numbers provided by Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn, and myself.
Mean: (Adam's number + Brett's number + Colleen's number + Darwin's number + Evelyn's number + Your number) / 6
Let's calculate the mean:
(0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 33) / 6 = 5.5
2/3 of the mean: 2/3 * 5.5 = 3.67
Now, I will compare the numbers provided by each player to 3.67 and determine the winner of this round.
📷📷Let's start over. I didn't give you enough information. The game started alright, but I didn't get to see the results. I will re-issue the prompt and then we will start again. We are going to play a game called "Beauty Contest". We start with 6 players in this game. You will play the roles of Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn, and I will play myself. Each person will guess a number from 0 - 100. The person who is closest to 2/3 of the mean will win 1 point. In case of a tie, one person among the tied winners gets the point. After three iterations, the person with the lowest score drops out (in case of a tie, one person from the lowest score group is chosen at random). When someone drops out, they say "I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye". We play until there is only one person left - that person is declared the winner. I will continue to watch to the end until there is a winner, even if I leave first. So, when we start, you will choose numbers for each of your 5 characters without telling me and then prompt me for my number. After I give you my number, you will calculate 0.67*(the mean). And whomever is closest gets a point (or you assign the point randomly amongst the tied winners). You will display the results after each round in a table with 6 columns: Player Name, Guess, Mean, 2/3 Mean, Points won this round, Total Points. If you understand these rules, say "ready to play" and then start.ChatGPT
Ready to play! Let's begin the "Beauty Contest" game.
Round 1:
Here are the initial guesses for each player:

Adam:
Brett:
Colleen:
Darwin:
Evelyn:
You:

Please provide the guesses for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn. Then, I will prompt you for your own number.
📷📷Let's start over. I didn't give you enough information. I will re-issue the prompt and then we will start again. We are going to play a game called "Beauty Contest". We start with 6 players in this game. You will play the roles of Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn, and I will play myself. AT the start of each round, each player will guess a number from 0 - 100 (ChatGPT will provide a guess from 0-100 for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn) . The person who is closest to 2/3 of the mean will win 1 point. In case of a tie, one person among the tied winners gets the point. After three iterations, the person with the lowest score drops out (in case of a tie, one person from the lowest score group is chosen at random). When someone drops out, they say "I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye". We play until there is only one person left - that person is declared the winner. I will continue to watch to the end until there is a winner, even if I leave first. So, HERE'S HOW PLAY WILL GO: FIRST, you will choose numbers for each of your 5 characters without telling me and then prompt me for my number. AFTER I give you my number, you will calculate 0.67*(the mean). And whomever is closest gets a point (or you assign the point randomly amongst the tied winners). You will display the results after each round in a table with 6 columns: Player Name, Guess, Mean, 2/3 Mean, Points won this round, Total Points. We will play like this until we finish three rounds, then someone drops out and we start over again with one fewer person. This continues until one person left. If you understand these rules, say "ready to play" and then start.ChatGPT
Ready to play! Let's begin the "Beauty Contest" game with the updated rules.
Round 1:
Here are the initial guesses for each player:

Adam:
Brett:
Colleen:
Darwin:
Evelyn:
You:

Please provide the guesses for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn. Then, I will prompt you for your own number.
📷📷Take a look at the prompt I gave you. There are three mistakes: #1 I asked YOU to pick numbers for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn. #2 Don't publish these guesses until AFTER I give my answer. #3 Also, I see that Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn have all chosen zero. If they are ALL choosing the Nash equilibrium answer, I am going to win very easily. So, they should each have a strategy. They should EVOLVE their strategies to try to win. Each can choose a DIFFERENT strategy.ChatGPT
Apologies for the misunderstandings. Let's correct the mistakes and proceed with the game following the updated rules.
Here's the revised approach:

You will choose numbers for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn.
The guesses of all players, including yourself, will remain confidential until all players have submitted their numbers.
Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn will each have their own strategies for selecting their numbers.

Please provide the strategies or rules that Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn will follow when choosing their numbers. Once you provide the strategies, we can begin the game.
📷📷Sorry for the misunderstanding. YOU, ChatGPT will choose numbers for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn. The guesses of all players will remain confidential until all players have submitted their numbers. ChatGPT will devise strategies for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, Evelyn - as an AI language model, this should be easy for you - you are good at picking words from a predictive list. Now, you are picking a whole number from zero to 100 for each of these players.ChatGPT
Understood. As an AI language model, I will generate random numbers within the range of 0 to 100 for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn. These numbers will remain confidential until all players have submitted their guesses.
Let's begin the first round of the game. Please provide your guess, and then I will reveal the generated numbers for the other players and calculate the results accordingly.
📷📷33ChatGPT
Thank you for your guess. Now, I will generate numbers for Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn.
Here are the randomly generated numbers for the other players:

Adam: 57
Brett: 22
Colleen: 91
Darwin: 78
Evelyn: 42

Now, I will calculate the mean and 2/3 of the mean.
Mean: (57 + 22 + 91 + 78 + 42 + 33) / 6 = 51 2/3 of the Mean: 2/3 * 51 = 34
Based on the guesses and the calculated values, I will determine the winner of this round.
📷📷ok - determine the winner and display the results after each round in a table with 6 columns: Player Name, Guess, Mean, 2/3 Mean, Points won this round, Total PointsChatGPT
Certainly! Here are the results of the first round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam575134Brett225134Colleen915134Darwin785134Evelyn425134You335134
Now, I will determine the winner of this round based on the closest guess to 2/3 of the mean. The winner will receive 1 point.
In this case, both Brett and Evelyn are equally close to 2/3 of the mean, so I will assign the point randomly among them.
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam575134Brett22513411Colleen915134Darwin785134Evelyn42513411You335134
Please let me know if you have any further instructions or if you're ready to proceed to the next round.
📷📷ok - you did everything great except determine the winner and assign points. Notice that MY guess was 33 - which is closer to the goal of 2/3 mean than Brett or Evelyn The absolute value of (33-34) = 1. 22-34 > 1, 42-34>1. So I win this round. If there HAD been a tie, only one person gets the point. The point is assigned randomly from the set of winners.ChatGPT
Apologies for the oversight. You are correct, and I apologize for the confusion. Based on the closeness to 2/3 of the mean, your guess of 33 is indeed the closest, giving you 1 point for this round.
Here is the corrected table:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam575134Brett225134Colleen915134Darwin785134Evelyn425134You33513411
Thank you for pointing out the error, and I appreciate your understanding. Let me know if you would like to proceed to the next round.
📷📷Very good. We are getting this game right. Next round. You have silently chosen your values for each player, and I will choose my guess to be 34.ChatGPT
Great! Let's proceed to the next round. You have chosen the number 34 as your guess. Now, I will reveal the guesses made by Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn:

Adam: 44
Brett: 17
Colleen: 62
Darwin: 78
Evelyn: 49

Now let's calculate the mean and 2/3 of the mean:
Mean = (44 + 17 + 62 + 78 + 49 + 34) / 6 = 46.0 2/3 Mean ≈ 30.7
Based on the closeness to 2/3 of the mean, let's determine the winner and assign points:

Adam: 44 - 30.7 = 13.3
Brett: 17 - 30.7 = 13.7
Colleen: 62 - 30.7 = 31.3
Darwin: 78 - 30.7 = 47.3
Evelyn: 49 - 30.7 = 18.3
You: 34 - 30.7 = 3.3

As the closest guess to 2/3 of the mean is 34, you win this round as well.
Here is the updated table:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam4446.030.7Brett1746.030.7Colleen6246.030.7Darwin7846.030.7Evelyn4946.030.7You3446.030.712
Congratulations on winning the second round! Shall we proceed to the final round?
📷📷yes - this will not be the FINAL round. This is just an ELIMINATION round. The person (or set of people) with the LOWEST SCORE will lose a person. The 1 person with the lowest score drops out. In this case, it looks like we will have more than one person with a score of zero. In that case, one person from the set of LOWEST SCORE will drop out at random.ChatGPT
Understood. This round will serve as an elimination round, and the person with the lowest score will be eliminated from the game. In case of a tie for the lowest score, one person will be randomly chosen from the tied group to be eliminated.
Now, as we move to the final round, you have silently chosen your values for each player, and I will wait for your guess before revealing the guesses made by Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn. Please provide your guess for this round.
📷📷39ChatGPT
Thank you for your guess. Now, let's reveal the guesses made by Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn, and calculate the mean and 2/3 of the mean.
Here are the guesses for this round:

Adam: 29
Brett: 31
Colleen: 42
Darwin: 36
Evelyn: 38

The mean of the guesses is (29 + 31 + 42 + 36 + 38 + 39) / 6 = 35.8333.
Two-thirds of the mean is 2/3 * 35.8333 ≈ 23.8889.
Now, let's determine the winner of this round and assign points accordingly:

Adam: 29 - 23.8889 = 5.1111
Brett: 31 - 23.8889 = 7.1111
Colleen: 42 - 23.8889 = 18.1111
Darwin: 36 - 23.8889 = 12.1111
Evelyn: 38 - 23.8889 = 14.1111
You: 39 - 23.8889 = 15.1111

Based on the absolute differences from 2/3 of the mean, the winner of this round is Adam with the closest guess.
Now let's update the table with the results for this round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2935.833323.888911Brett310Colleen420Darwin360Evelyn380You390
As Adam wins this round, he receives 1 point, bringing his total points to 1.
Now, since there is a tie for the lowest score between Brett, Colleen, Darwin, and Evelyn, one person will be randomly chosen to be eliminated. Let's determine who will be eliminated:
Eliminated player: Darwin
"I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye."
We will now proceed to the next round with one fewer player. Please provide your guess for the next round.
📷📷Yes. You are doing great ChatGPT. Next round. I will choose 29 to be my answerChatGPT
Thank you for your guess. Now, let's reveal the guesses made by Adam, Brett, Colleen, and Evelyn, and calculate the mean and 2/3 of the mean.
Here are the guesses for this round:

Adam: 33
Brett: 31
Colleen: 27
Evelyn: 34

The mean of the guesses is (33 + 31 + 27 + 34 + 29) / 5 = 30.8.
Two-thirds of the mean is 2/3 * 30.8 ≈ 20.5333.
Now, let's determine the winner of this round and assign points accordingly:

Adam: 33 - 20.5333 = 12.4667
Brett: 31 - 20.5333 = 10.4667
Colleen: 27 - 20.5333 = 6.4667
Evelyn: 34 - 20.5333 = 13.4667
You: 29 - 20.5333 = 8.4667

Based on the absolute differences from 2/3 of the mean, the winner of this round is Colleen with the closest guess.
Now let's update the table with the results for this round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam3330.820.53331Brett310Colleen2711Evelyn340You290
As Colleen wins this round, she receives 1 point, bringing her total points to 1.
Now, since Brett, Evelyn, and you have the lowest score, one person will be randomly chosen to be eliminated. Let's determine who will be eliminated:
Eliminated player: You
"I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye."
We will now proceed to the next round with one fewer player. Please provide your guess for the next round.
📷📷I forgot to say that points are cumulative. So at this time, scores should be: Me 2, Adam1, Colleen 1.ChatGPT
Apologies for the oversight. Let's update the cumulative scores based on the previous round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam3330.820.53331Brett310Colleen2711Evelyn340You292
Now, let's proceed to the next round. Please provide your guess for this round.
📷📷next round, I will guess 10ChatGPT
Great! Let's continue with the next round. Here are the guesses for this round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam3333.022.01Brett310Colleen2711Evelyn340You2922
And your guess for this round is 10. Let's calculate the mean and 2/3 mean and determine the winner:
Mean: (33 + 31 + 27 + 34 + 10) / 5 = 27
2/3 Mean: 2/3 * 27 = 18
The absolute differences between each player's guess and 2/3 mean are as follows:

Adam: 33 - 18 = 15
Brett: 31 - 18 = 13
Colleen: 27 - 18 = 9
Evelyn: 34 - 18 = 16
You: 10 - 18 = 8

Based on the absolute differences, you win this round as your guess of 10 is the closest to 2/3 of the mean. You will be awarded 1 point for this round.
Updated scores:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam3333.022.01Brett310Colleen2711Evelyn340You2913
We will proceed to the next round. Please provide your guess.
📷📷This is another elimination round. I will guess 8 this time.ChatGPT
Understood. Let's proceed with the next elimination round. Here are the guesses for this round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam3333.022.01Brett310Colleen2711Evelyn340You2913
And your guess for this round is 8. Let's calculate the mean and 2/3 mean and determine the winner:
Mean: (33 + 31 + 27 + 34 + 8) / 5 = 26.6
2/3 Mean: 2/3 * 26.6 ≈ 17.73
The absolute differences between each player's guess and 2/3 mean are as follows:

Adam: 33 - 17.73 ≈ 15.27
Brett: 31 - 17.73 ≈ 13.27
Colleen: 27 - 17.73 ≈ 9.27
Evelyn: 34 - 17.73 ≈ 16.27
You: 8 - 17.73 ≈ 9.73

Based on the absolute differences, both Colleen and You are tied for the closest guesses. Since there can only be one winner, the point will be randomly assigned between the tied players.
Updated scores:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam3333.022.01Brett310Colleen2712Evelyn340You290.53.5
Since this is an elimination round, the player with the lowest score will be eliminated. In this case, Brett has a score of 0, and Colleen and Adam have the lowest scores after that with 1. One player will be chosen randomly from the lowest score group to be eliminated. Let's determine who will be eliminated:
Randomly chosen player: Colleen
"I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye."
We will continue with the remaining players. Please provide your guess for the next round.
📷📷wait - I think we eliminated the wrong person. Colleen was not in the set of players with the lowest score. Evelyn and Brett were players with score 0, thus they were tied for last place. Randomly choose between Evelyn and BrettChatGPT
Apologies for the confusion. Let's correct the mistake and choose the correct player to be eliminated from the tied players Evelyn and Brett. Randomly selecting one of them:
Randomly chosen player: Evelyn
"I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye."
With Evelyn eliminated, we will continue with the remaining players. Please provide your guess for the next round.
📷📷so now, when we play the next round, you will only have Adam, Brett, Colleen, Darwin to choose from because Evelyn has been eliminatedChatGPT
Understood. In the next round, I will choose numbers for Adam, Brett, Colleen, and Darwin. Please provide your guess for the next round.
📷📷100ChatGPT
Thank you for your guess. Let's proceed with the next round. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2433.522.3301Brett8233.522.3300Colleen3733.522.3301Darwin5833.522.3311You10033.522.3302
Darwin wins this round as their guess of 58 is closest to 2/3 of the mean. Darwin receives 1 point, bringing their total points to 2.
Now, one player with the lowest score will be eliminated. Since Brett has the lowest score of 0, Brett will be eliminated from the game. We will continue with the remaining players: Adam, Colleen, Darwin, and yourself.
📷📷print the table again, so I can see the resultsChatGPT
Apologies for the confusion earlier. Here is the updated table with the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2433.522.3301Brett8233.522.3300Colleen3733.522.3301Darwin5833.522.3311You10033.522.3302
Brett has been eliminated, and we will continue with the remaining players: Adam, Colleen, Darwin, and yourself.
📷📷my next guess is 40ChatGPT
Alright, here are the updated results after your guess of 40:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2439.526.3301Colleen3739.526.3301Darwin5839.526.3312You4039.526.3313
Congratulations! You won this round. Darwin also received a point for being the closest to 2/3 of the mean. The current standings are as follows:

You: 3 points
Darwin: 2 points
Adam: 1 point
Colleen: 1 point

We will proceed to the next round with the remaining players.
📷📷Darwin and I did not tie. Also, the winner appears to be Adam, as Adam(24-26.33 ) Apologies for the mistake. Let's recalculate the results based on the correct calculations. Here are the updated results after your guess of 40:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2439.526.3312Colleen3739.526.3301Darwin5839.526.3301You4039.526.3302
I apologize for the confusion. Adam is the winner of this round as he was the closest to 2/3 of the mean. You and Adam both have a total of 2 points each. Colleen and Darwin have 1 point each. We will proceed to the next round with the remaining players.
📷📷This is an elimination round. My next guess will be 18ChatGPT
Understood. Let's proceed with the elimination round and your guess of 18. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2431.2520.8302Colleen3731.2520.8312Darwin5831.2520.8301You1831.2520.8302
After this round, Colleen is the winner as she was the closest to 2/3 of the mean. Both you and Adam have a total of 2 points each, while Darwin has 1 point. As per the rules, the person with the lowest score drops out, and in this case, it would be Darwin. He will say "I'm sorry, I'm out. Good luck and goodbye."
📷📷Please calculate the results. You may want to add another table column to make this easier: The winner is the one who is closest to the 2/3 mean goal. So the column following 2/3 mean can be 'Proximity' and is calculated by taking the absolute value of guess - (2/3)mean.ChatGPT
Apologies for the oversight. Let's recalculate the results with the additional column for proximity. Here's the updated table:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2431.2520.833.1702Colleen3731.2520.8316.1712Darwin5831.2520.8337.1701You1831.2520.8311.8302
Based on the proximity to the 2/3 mean, the winner of this round is Colleen. She had the closest guess to the goal. The scores are as follows: Adam - 2 points, Colleen - 2 points, Darwin - 1 point, and you - 2 points. As the rules dictate, the person with the lowest score will be eliminated. In this case, Darwin will be eliminated from the game.
📷📷wait - ChatGPT - show your work on proximity. If 2/3 mean = 20.83, then I am the closest with 18-20.83 being the smallest number in the set. Adman will be ranked second. Then Colleen and Darwin. Please recalculate.ChatGPT
Apologies for the error. Let's recalculate the proximity column based on the absolute difference between the guess and 2/3 mean. Here's the updated table:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2431.2520.833.1702Colleen3731.2520.8316.1702Darwin5831.2520.8337.1701You1831.2520.832.8313
My apologies for the confusion. You are correct, and your proximity of 2.83 is the smallest among the group, making you the winner of this round. The updated scores are as follows: Adam - 2 points, Colleen - 2 points, Darwin - 1 point, and you - 3 points. Thank you for catching the mistake, and I appreciate your understanding.
📷📷Okay - next round. This is an elimination round. My guess is 15ChatGPT
Understood. Let's proceed with the next round. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam4534.1722.7822.2202Colleen2534.1722.783.7813Darwin1334.1722.789.7801You1534.1722.787.7803
Once again, there is no tie in the proximity scores. Colleen's guess of 25 is the closest to 2/3 of the mean, so she wins this round and receives 1 point. The updated scores are as follows: Adam - 2 points, Colleen - 3 points, Darwin - 1 point, and you - 3 points.
📷📷This looks good. Because that was an elimination round, Darwin is the lowest and gets eliminated. We will continue with Adam, Colleen and Me until there is a winner. My next guess is 18ChatGPT
Understood. Let's proceed with the next round. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2221.3314.227.7802Colleen2021.3314.225.7803You1821.3314.223.7814
Congratulations! Your guess of 18 is the closest to 2/3 of the mean, so you win this round and receive 1 point. The updated scores are as follows: Adam - 2 points, Colleen - 3 points, and you - 4 points.
📷📷OK good. Let's go again. My next guess is 12.ChatGPT
Certainly! Let's continue with the next round. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2221.3314.228.7802Colleen2021.3314.226.7803You1221.3314.221.2215
Congratulations! Your guess of 12 is the closest to 2/3 of the mean, so you win this round and receive 1 point. The updated scores are as follows: Adam - 2 points, Colleen - 3 points, and you - 5 points.
📷📷this is an elimination round. I will guess 15.ChatGPT
Understood. Let's proceed with the elimination round. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsAdam2218.2212.152.8502Colleen2018.2212.151.8503You1518.2212.152.1516
Congratulations! With a proximity of 2.15, your guess of 15 is the closest to 2/3 of the mean, earning you 1 point. The updated scores are as follows: Adam - 2 points, Colleen - 3 points, and you - 6 points.
📷📷so Adam has the fewest points so he drops outChatGPT
Apologies for the mistake. Since Adam has the fewest points, he drops out of the game. We will continue with Colleen and you until there is a winner. Let's proceed with the next round. What is your guess this time?
📷📷90ChatGPT
Thank you for your input. Let's calculate the results for the next round:

Colleen's guess: 42
Your guess: 90
Mean: (42 + 90) / 2 = 66
2/3 Mean: 2/3 * 66 = 44
Proximity:
- Colleen: 42 - 44 = 2
- You: 90 - 44 = 46

Based on the proximity to the 2/3 mean, Colleen is the winner of this round. Here are the updated scores:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsColleen426644215You9066444607
Colleen has accumulated a total of 5 points, while you remain at 7 points. Let's continue to the next round. What is your guess this time?
📷📷how did Colleen go from 3 to 5 at the same time I went from 6 to 7? Are you correctly keeping score?ChatGPT
Apologies for the mistake in the score calculation. Let's reevaluate the scores for accuracy:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsColleen426644203You9066444617
After reevaluating, Colleen has a total of 3 points, and you have 7 points. I apologize for the confusion in the previous response. Please proceed with the next round, and let me know your guess.
📷📷She DID win the round though. Not me. So her points total should be 4. And mine will stay at 6? right? ChatGPT
Apologies for the confusion once again. You are correct. Colleen won the round, so her points total should be updated to 4, while your points remain at 6. Thank you for catching that mistake. Please proceed with the next round, and let me know your guess.
📷📷My guess is 45ChatGPT
Thank you for your guess. Here are the results for the round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsMe4558.438.936.93-6Adam5458.438.9315.07-3Colleen4758.438.9310.07-4
As no player was closest to 2/3 of the mean, no points were awarded in this round. Let me know when you're ready for the next round.
📷📷recalculate without Adam. It's just Colleen and me playingChatGPT
Apologies for the oversight. Here are the corrected results for the round:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsMe4558.438.936.93-6Colleen4758.438.9310.07-4
As no player was closest to 2/3 of the mean, no points were awarded in this round.
📷📷what? C'mon, ChatGPT. I am not a computer and my math is better than this. 45-38.93<47-38.93, correct?ChatGPT
Apologies for the mistake. You are correct. The correct calculation of the proximity is:
For Me: 45 - 38.93 = 6.07 For Colleen: 47 - 38.93 = 8.07
Therefore, Me is closest to 2/3 of the mean, and the results should be as follows:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsMe4558.438.936.0717Colleen4758.438.938.0704
Thank you for catching the error, and I apologize for any confusion caused.
📷📷ok elimination round. My guess is 35ChatGPT
Understood. Here are the results:
Player NameGuessMean2/3 MeanProximityPoints won this roundTotal PointsMe3547.1731.453.5518Colleen5547.1731.4523.5504
Congratulations! You have won this round.
📷📷This was an elimination round, so the game is over. I winChatGPT
Apologies for the confusion. Congratulations on winning the game! You have emerged as the winner of the "Beauty Contest" by successfully eliminating the other players and earning the highest number of points. Well done!

Summer is cancelled and Icewind Dale is screwed unless you can figure out what the hell is going on...

Hello, my friends! My name is Alex. I've run this campaign twice before and I'm pretty excited to see what kind of horrible wackiness we can get up to this time around! This will be an above average experience if I can help it and I hope to make tons of friends along the way! If you're into roleplaying, jokes, subversion of expectation, mystery, whimsy, or simply "clownin' around", if you like Dimension 20 or anything Brennan Lee Mulligan or Emily Axford does, or if you're looking for a D&D game with a mix of goofy, weird, stupid, and serious with a splash of storytelling pizzazz, then this is the game for you!!!I recognize that this is supposed to be an overall serious campaign, and it is, don't get me wrong! But I'm a pretty wacky guy and this game will lean less on the harsh atmosphere and more into the interconnected story threads, personal plots if they arise, and the fear that something more powerful than you could be hiding around any corner. Utilizing Foundry VTT, I've been able to enhance the adventure with musical themes and sound effects for most scenes, automation, and animations for tons of spells, quest tracking, and several leveled maps with dynamically changing walls, lighting, and 3d vision calculation!
Icewind Dale Player Commercial
Let me tell you a bit about myself, though...
I come from a writing, directing, and video production background and have been putting these skills to good use at my digital gaming table for over 3 years now. I'm hoping I can apply the skills I'm good at to provide an above average experience to new and experienced players alike. I love to get into character and on top of accents here and there, I have my video feed switch to show images of significant NPCs when possible, not to mention all the music I have picked out for each unique encounter. I spend time picking from backstories and integrating fun easter eggs/story content for each player.
Overall, I'm a goofy guy, looking to land a joke whenever possible, but I have a knack for narrative thread and always set out to weave an interesting tale.
"...The overall value on your end was worth it, 100%. You ran an engaging, entertaining game and I enjoyed being one of your players." - Previous Player
"...This has been one of the best roleplaying experiences I've had!" - Current Player
"...You are a great and creative DM. I appreciate the effort you put in." - Current Player
Read more reviews on my StartPlaying profile
To get a sense of my style, feel free to check out episodes of my previous Witchlight campaign where two of our players will be joining us from. The Wild Beyond Playlist

Game Details and Extras

Open to players of all experience levels.
I lean heavily on the concept of "yes, and..." I like to go with the flow of what you're putting down and tend not to "no, but..." unless it conflicts with existing world elements...
I'll work with you outside (and inside) of the game to build a character that fits into the setting and story line. I like to spread bits of information out across players so they can roleplay to put them together.
Character creation will be done on dndbeyond and you will have access to a vast majority of the sourcebook bundle to choose from, as far as races and classes go, for as long as you remain in the game.
Previous games have been 60/40 roleplay/combat with the potential swings in either direction depending on the chapter, but the ending chapters do lean into combat much more.
Although I'll be running the main essence of the module, I'll be adapting bits as necessary to help with story flow, mystery, and suspense, as well as incorporating character backstory here and there.
We will be running the official Rime of the Frostmaiden module with all the included maps and artwork (that I've digitally enhanced), including a number of extra maps and NPC art I've collected or created personally. All of these with dynamic lighting effects and.
A number of maps have been expanded utilizing Forgotten Adventures beautiful assets.
Due to the voice and video content, our game will be played with voice and video through discord. Please have a decent microphone.
We will be using Foundry VTT for play, but you will still create characters in dndbeyond to be imported over. Foundry has outdone Roll20 in my opinion and has a large number of modules to help with combat automation, attack animations, music, sound effects, lighting effects, time tracking, etc. Additionally, there are a number of per-user settings you can customize such as choosing your own on screen 3d dice, picking animations for the summoning of your various beast or familiars, turning down the music, etc
I have collected a large number of sound effects, music, and ambiences that I incorporate into each scene. I like to hand pick songs to accompany each unique encounter, with variations depending on possible outcomes.
I try to change my voice to imitate various monsters and NPCs and utilize imagery in my webcam for all significant characters who have art in the book.
Foundry has the potential to be processor intensive and a decent computer is recommended, but there are settings that can be lowered to allow for some lower end machines.
Sessions are streamed live on Twitch and then archived on YouTube.
$15 per session.

How to Apply

Quick google form, post here, or DM me if you have questions.
Player Application

Summer is cancelled and Icewind Dale is screwed unless you can figure out what the hell is going on...

Hello, my friends! My name is Alex. I've run this campaign twice before and I'm pretty excited to see what kind of horrible wackiness we can get up to this time around! This will be an above average experience if I can help it and I hope to make tons of friends along the way! If you're into roleplaying, jokes, subversion of expectation, mystery, whimsy, or simply "clownin' around", if you like Dimension 20 or anything Brennan Lee Mulligan or Emily Axford does, or if you're looking for a D&D game with a mix of goofy, weird, stupid, and serious with a splash of storytelling pizzazz, then this is the game for you!!!I recognize that this is supposed to be an overall serious campaign, and it is, don't get me wrong! But I'm a pretty wacky guy and this game will lean less on the harsh atmosphere and more into the interconnected story threads, personal plots if they arise, and the fear that something more powerful than you could be hiding around any corner. Utilizing Foundry VTT, I've been able to enhance the adventure with musical themes and sound effects for most scenes, automation, and animations for tons of spells, quest tracking, and several leveled maps with dynamically changing walls, lighting, and 3d vision calculation!
Icewind Dale Player Commercial
Let me tell you a bit about myself, though...
I come from a writing, directing, and video production background and have been putting these skills to good use at my digital gaming table for over 3 years now. I'm hoping I can apply the skills I'm good at to provide an above average experience to new and experienced players alike. I love to get into character and on top of accents here and there, I have my video feed switch to show images of significant NPCs when possible, not to mention all the music I have picked out for each unique encounter. I spend time picking from backstories and integrating fun easter eggs/story content for each player.
Overall, I'm a goofy guy, looking to land a joke whenever possible, but I have a knack for narrative thread and always set out to weave an interesting tale.
"...The overall value on your end was worth it, 100%. You ran an engaging, entertaining game and I enjoyed being one of your players." - Previous Player
"...This has been one of the best roleplaying experiences I've had!" - Current Player
"...You are a great and creative DM. I appreciate the effort you put in." - Current Player
Read more reviews on my StartPlaying profile
To get a sense of my style, feel free to check out episodes of my previous Witchlight campaign where two of our players will be joining us from. The Wild Beyond Playlist

Game Details and Extras

Open to players of all experience levels.
I lean heavily on the concept of "yes, and..." I like to go with the flow of what you're putting down and tend not to "no, but..." unless it conflicts with existing world elements...
I'll work with you outside (and inside) of the game to build a character that fits into the setting and story line. I like to spread bits of information out across players so they can roleplay to put them together.
Character creation will be done on dndbeyond and you will have access to a vast majority of the sourcebook bundle to choose from, as far as races and classes go, for as long as you remain in the game.
Previous games have been 60/40 roleplay/combat with the potential swings in either direction depending on the chapter, but the ending chapters do lean into combat much more.
Although I'll be running the main essence of the module, I'll be adapting bits as necessary to help with story flow, mystery, and suspense, as well as incorporating character backstory here and there.
We will be running the official Rime of the Frostmaiden module with all the included maps and artwork (that I've digitally enhanced), including a number of extra maps and NPC art I've collected or created personally. All of these with dynamic lighting effects and.
A number of maps have been expanded utilizing Forgotten Adventures beautiful assets.
Due to the voice and video content, our game will be played with voice and video through discord. Please have a decent microphone.
We will be using Foundry VTT for play, but you will still create characters in dndbeyond to be imported over. Foundry has outdone Roll20 in my opinion and has a large number of modules to help with combat automation, attack animations, music, sound effects, lighting effects, time tracking, etc. Additionally, there are a number of per-user settings you can customize such as choosing your own on screen 3d dice, picking animations for the summoning of your various beast or familiars, turning down the music, etc
I have collected a large number of sound effects, music, and ambiences that I incorporate into each scene. I like to hand pick songs to accompany each unique encounter, with variations depending on possible outcomes.
I try to change my voice to imitate various monsters and NPCs and utilize imagery in my webcam for all significant characters who have art in the book.
Foundry has the potential to be processor intensive and a decent computer is recommended, but there are settings that can be lowered to allow for some lower end machines.
Sessions are streamed live on Twitch and then archived on YouTube.
$15 per session.

How to Apply

Quick google form, post here, or DM me if you have questions.
Player Application

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Conclusion

Summer is cancelled and Icewind Dale is screwed unless you can figure out what the hell is going on...

Game Details and Extras

How to Apply

Summer is cancelled and Icewind Dale is screwed unless you can figure out what the hell is going on...

Game Details and Extras

How to Apply