Interlude: Game Content

[sythyry]

Interlude: Game Content

Nendrai Friend (-3 Disadvantage): You are friends with a nendrai, in a situation which obliges you to have frequent contact with the nendrai. If there is trouble or turmoil in your life for some other reason, and your friend finds out about it, she will try to help you, and then you have much more trouble and turmoil. (She cannot understand that the trouble she has caused is actually troublesome.) However, you can occasionally get useful magic from her. (Many people on Strayway have this.)

Child Adventurer (+4 Advantage): You were involved in harsh adventures as a young child. You have picked up 5×d8 experience points in each of the following: Cley Base, Magic Resistance, Brawling, Claws and Teeth, Crushing Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Life Base, all athletics skills, Empathy, Etiquette, Friendliness, Guile, General Knowledge, Languages, Natural Science, and Social Knowledge. (All the kids now have this.)

Child Victim (-5 Disadvantage): You were killed repeated as a child, and it was one of the formative experience of your life. You will suffer lifetime fears about the means of your death, interpreted broadly, and will suffer Trouble 3 if you are confronted with in the future. (Quendry will fear magical weapons.) You will suffer hideous and sticky nightmares for the rest of your life, which cause you Trouble 2 for d6 hours after you wake up each morning. However, you did gain 60 experience in Life Base. (Quendry and Ochirion can take this.)

Office Worker (+2 Advantage): You have worked for several years as an accountant, scribe, secretary, or some other such office worker, and done so with an adventurer's eye. You have learned: Bargain (30 exp), Etiquette (30 exp), Friendliness (20 exp), Guile (30 exp), Interrogate (20 exp), Intimidate (20 exp), General Knowledge (30 exp), History and Literature (10 exp), Judge Value (30 exp), Languages (10 exp), Law (30 exp), Social Knowledge (30 exp). (Zascalle used this to great effect.)

Despised (-5 Disadvantage): Something that is overwhelmingly important to you, and is broadly known, is despised and hated by most primes; e.g., perhaps you are known to be transaffectionate in a city which does not like such things. Roll three botch dice on any social interaction with a normal person who knows about you. A single botch indicates indicates insults and contempt, probably unintentional. A double botch indicates disgust; a -5 penalty on most social rolls, and the interaction will go poorly. A triple botch is a social disaster: the encounter goes as poorly as possible, and you somehow make a particular, though probably short-term, enemy of the person you encountered. (A revealed Dark Secret can turn into Despised.) (All of the Strayway crew in Eigrach has this -- even the cisaffectionate ones.)

Adventurer True Love (+4 Advantage): You and one or more other PCs (all of whom must take this Advantage) are true loves; far and away the most important people in each others' lifes. You have a Broad Circumstantial Bonus, giving you a +1 bonus on all s20 rolls made when trying to assist, rescue, impress, or please each other. However, when flirting with anyone other than a True Love, roll two botch dice for ensuing disasters. (Yerenthax and Jyondre have this.)

Sorcerer's Assistant (+3 Advantage): You have worked for several years as a sorcerer's assistant. You did some magic, but more supplying cley, laboratory organization, dealing with customers, background research, and other assorted things. Experience in Cley Base (30), Concentration (20), Magic Resistance (5 × d8), Magic Theory (30), Meditation (30), Bargain (20), Empathy(10), Etiquette (20), Interrogate (10), Intimidate (10), God's Tongue (10), General Knowledge (10), Natural Science (10), and ten other magical arts and skills (5 each). You have 12 complexity-5 spells and 6 complexity-10 spells, mostly specialized or even whimsical ones that particularly useful adventuring. (Phaniet has this).

Anything else from Sythyry's Vacation you'd like to see described in game terms?

Comments

Recipe: Poptaloops

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Random notes: I do most of my baking by weight, though I know most folks still use volumetric at home, so I'll be including both in this. This will be more hot cross bun-like than challah like. Please note that the volume based measures are estimated and prone to rounding errors.

Random Terran Stab at Poptaloops:

Pastry
3 3/4 cups / 500g pastry flour plus additional for dusting
4 tbsp / 45g cold butter
3 1/2 tbsp/ 45g sugar
1 tsp / 5g salt
1 tsp / 4g ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp / 1g ground allspice
1/4 tsp / 1g grated nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp / 8g fast-action dried yeast
1 egg
1 cup, 2 tbsp / 275ml milk
Oil, for greasing

Glaze
4 tbsp / 60 ml milk
2 tbsp / 26 g sugar

Topping
6 ounces / 170g small red beans (azuki beans)
3 cups / 710ml water
1/2 cup / 125g packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp / 8ml vegetable oil

The day before you bake bake your poptaloops:
Wash your beans, discarding any broken ones. Place in a bowl and cover beans with cold water, to soak over night.

The day of baking:
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Cut butter into the flour until it resembles fine crumbs/coarse sand. Stir in sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and yeast. In another bowl, beat the egg while slowly adding the milk until well incorporated. Mix this with the dry ingredients slowly, until you you have a soft, pliable dough. Knead for five minutes then return it to the bowl, covering the dough with either a damp towel or oiled plastic wrap as your technology permits. Let rise in a warm place for an hour.

While you're waiting for your dough to rise, now's a good time to make your bean paste. Drain and discard the water from your beans then place them in a pot. Pour 3 cups / 710 ml of cold water over them and bring to a boil. Let boil for an hour, then drain and discard the water.

Back to pastry. Take your dough out of the bowl and onto a well floured surface. Punch the dough down then spread it out, cutting into 24 equal sized pieces. Roll pieces into neat little balls before placing on 2 oiled baking sheets with a good bit of room around each ball. Cover sheets with damp towels/ oiled plastic wrap and let rest for half an hour.

Now's a good time to preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/ 200 degrees Celsius. It is also a good time to finish your bean paste. Take drained beans and blend/mash/otherwise make them into paste shaped. Slowly add your brown sugar while doing this until everything is combined. Take your oil and add to a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add your bean paste to the sauce pan, stirring, for three or four minutes, until all excess water is cooked out of the paste and it is truly paste-like. Set aside.

One more thing, while you're waiting on your buns to rise. Your glaze. Mix the sugar and milk into a small sauce pan over low heat until all of the sugar is dissolved. Raise the temperature to medium heat and bring to a boil for two or three minutes, until it forms a simple syrup. Set aside and keep warm

Remove the towel/plastic wrap from your buns and put the trays into the oven, baking the buns for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush glaze over the buns while still hot, then top with a dot of bean paste each. Let cool then enjoy.

Re: Recipe: Poptaloops

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

That sounds delicious and accurate! If anyone makes it, let me know how it goes!