That time of year

Well, it's Christmas Eve, and I'm up at 1 a.m., farting around on my computer while Sandra sleeps. It's been a very long, weird year for everyone, it seems. The world is unpredictable and honestly pretty terrifying a lot of the time, but occasionally I'll see glimpses of the goodness that's still around, and I'm hopeful, despite everything. Not because I think the world is going to fix itself, but because I think good people will prevail eventually. I don't know why I think that, given the strong evidence to the contrary, but I do. I guess I have to.

Now, enough of that morose shit, let's talk about something else.

Say hello to my little friend! It's Willow!

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE

Okay, something else. I've been playing the TTRPG Vampire: The Masquerade on Discord and Roll20 and really been enjoying it. I started through a service called StartPlaying, which basically organizes games and groups like classifieds, and hooks people up with GMs who want to run them. You pay a fee per game, which is what incentivizes the GM to do a good job and stay consistent.

ANYHOO, it's making me want to put a game together through them (or on my own) and run something. I think I'd be good at it, and it would be fun. I've got a couple of campaigns almost fully formed (I've run them before, in person) that I think could be interesting. One is Vampire, and one is Call of Cthulhu. So it's possible that in the near future, I'll be looking for players for those games. Either through StartPlaying or just something I put together.

The Vampire game I'm particularly excited about. It takes place in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the 1990s. I really liked the Call of Cthulhu game when I ran it the first time. It also takes place in Los Angeles, though in the 1940s, and intersects with a lot of old Hollywood and Noir stuff. That's probably the game I'll run first. Both games have all sorts of information and lore and NPCs and handouts and props (digital) and could really be an in-depth and exciting experience, for the players and for me.

I'll keep y'all posted about that, if it becomes a thing.

PLURIBUS

There was a thing in the opening of the finale of Pluribus that really, really upset me. I wasn't expecting it, and I had to stop the show and come back the next day to finish it. It wasn't anything big or shocking – it was just a very effective and devastating (to me, anyway) way to illustrate the stakes at play in the show's premise. Which, if you don't know, then good, you're in for a treat. The show is best taken at its own pace and allowed to reveal itself organically, on its terms.

I will say that Rhea Seehorn and Karolina Wydra are captivating to watch, and I looked forward to each new episode, specifically to see those two. It's got a lot going for it, but their chemistry and characterization are fantastic.

In some ways, it almost scratched that Lost itch, but I fear that's a phantom limb that's just never coming back. Still, it's nice to watch something that reminds me of what it was like to be so deeply invested in the mystery of a well-crafted TV show.

Alright, I think I'm going to sit by the tree and draw and listen to music until I'm tired enough to go to sleep.

Thanks for sitting with me for a few minutes while I rambled.

Merry Christmas and take care, to those who need to hear it and everyone else too.