So, how is D&D going?

I haven't posted about this outside of saying that I got into Leyfarers and that one time I was complaining about D&D as a system. Did I mention that my first week in Leyfarers, when I had 3 games scheduled, my top lip was fully numb from the allergic reaction I was dealing with? I could move it, but not terribly well. It made clear enunciation a bit tricky.

You know how when you batter chicken you put it flour, then a wet layer, then a dry later, etc to build up the coating? Yeah, that was me with foundation that week to try to hide the welts on my face. (I think, after 3 derm appointments and two different prescriptions, the allergic reaction is over. But I am still dealing with the skin damage from it having happened.)

So yeah, it's been a lot, but it's going good! I started with Leyfarers at the start of chapter 5 and we are about to have the chapter 5 finale. I found out today that some of the DMs are like also in a podcast and fans send them stuff? We were showing our dice sets while waiting for a player who was running late and our DM mentioned showed a set that a fan hand-poured for her.

There are now people who I interact with offline who would notice if I suddenly dropped off the face of the planet. This has not been the case for about eight years, which is when I had my medical breakdown that left me practically bedridden for a few years. Hard to come back from that, especially when like lockdowns and pandemics happen. The people at TPK are pretty cool. Two of the DMs are openly trans. A player who I've done a few side stories with recognized me at a holiday market.

D&D is a bit of a time sink and it's cutting into my photography time, but trade-offs are trade-offs. I've got a bit of work to do today to prep for next session.

TPK is a really cool place. The drinks and even some of the decor is themed after the custom world setting they are running under D&D's OGL system, and also events that happen in the story.



The rugs on the walls are locations in the world setting.

Truckee Train Trip Day 2

I got up early for breakfast. I couldn’t eat much of the menu, but they had oatmeal, fruit, bacon and coffee. The sunrise colors in the fog as we went over fields and bridges was amazing, but it was mostly shots that would not have worked with my gear or from my vantage point anyway.

It was pretty, but no shots were going to turn out:


I stowed my bag of trip food at the station and went into San Francisco. The bus I took over the bridge into the city was double decker and I was able to snag a front seat, so I had quite the view.





Right as I was walking away from the bus station, one of those fucking Waymo self driving cars backed up into the crosswalk I was in, so I had to hop back onto the sidewalk. That was my welcome to San Fran. That Waymo, and all that I spotted except one, had no humans in them. I assume they were just driving around as practice. Fuckers sure aren’t perfect, goddam AI beast tried to back up into me! I yelled at it, in vain hopes that it would realize 'backing up into humans is bad'

In the city I walked the historic waterfront and rode around on the streetcars. I’d have liked to spent more time on the street cars, but my whole life I’ve been hearing horror stories about what rush hour traffic into and out of the city was like, so I dipped around 3:30 because I didn’t want to be stuck on a bus forever. Maybe it's not as bad these days. One thing that kept surprising me about the city was how few cars were on the road. I keep looking at the giant towering building and then back at the mostly empty roads. I wont if it's good public transport, the sheer misery of driving during rush hour or something else that is keeping cars off the roads.

Alcatraz:


I considered going out there but my recent experiences with being in tour groups, plus boats being bad for me, made me skip it.

I still feel like there should have been specific things I wanted to do in San Fran, but maybe those things aren't around in 2024 San Fran.