top 5 books, also top 5 gaming stories
oh god here’s where I say again I haven’t read much in a while, and all my librarian friends hate me. but lets see.
Honorable mention: Nightlight, a twilight parody book thats really funny and I’d read a lot when wanting to relax, and Temeraire, a great series I....need to finish.
5. Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. I don’t think I ever really finished any of the exercises, but it was a lot of help for little me and getting into writing.
4. Is everyone hanging out without me? by Mindy Kaling. I read this for a comedy class I took in my 1st year of college and it helped me decide I wanted to go into TV writing.
3. Rhino with the Glue on Shoes, edited by Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima. Its a collection of zoo vet stories, and as someone who wanted to be a zoo vet growing up, its one I came back to a lot over the years.
2. Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn. Ah! Finally some fantasy in here! its part of the Gillengaria series and probably the series as a WHOLE is one of my faves, (although not a fan of the 2nd one....) but the 3rd one is the best.
1. Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion. It may be cheating to put in a book thats about a TV show, but its another one that helped inspire me to want to be a tv writer and actually make shows like DS9
Burning Boat: For my first ever tryst as a DM, I used a set campaign. but the campaign was for like, 2.0, and we were playing 5.0, so, a lot of adjustments had to be made. the first half was supposed to be in an old house, the second half on a boat. Except they....burned....the boat.....They BURNED. The BOAT. They ENDED the CAMPAIGN and I had NOTHING.
Bob Ross: My 2nd character in Changeling the Lost was an old grandmotherly yarn doll named Nonna. Nonna liked to bake for her friends. Her friends gave her “special ingredients” for her brownies that she used. And thats how a group of college students spent their night PRETENDING to get high and watch Bob Ross.
Silent Cleric: My dad taught me how to play D&D with my mom, and he sets us against this evil....I think it was a Drow cleric, coming at us, riding a giant spider, and getting ready to throw down some nasty spells. So I cast silence on her clothes (they can’t be cast on people, just objects, and they have a radius around it). The cleric tries to run and my Ranger shoots her down in like, 2 rounds. Dad was grumpy.
Flying Bear of Doom: My dad had the great idea of doing a mock combat between my Mom’s characters and mine, so we had a battle of her wizard vs. my Ranger. The danger there being my mom’s wizard can change into a DAMN SILVER DRAGON. Luckily, I have a cloak to change into forest creatures. So, I’m hurting, and call for a hail mary. I transform into a bird and fly up as high as I can, then zoom down, flying at top speed. At the last second I transform into a bear. I die instantly on impact, of course. Mom survives with one damn hitpoint left.
Mango: This is a notorious story and will haunt me for years to come.
Once upon a time, a young changeling GM had to get to another scene really quickly, but players stopped her. They had a question about the hedgefruit they had collected. the GM, not knowing much about hedgefruit, said, one for health, one for glamour and (not wanting them ALL to be positive) said “Don’t eat that one, it will kill you in one bite.
The naïve GM went on her way, and by the time game ended, had quite forgotten about the fruit.
a few days later, the GM awakes to several messages, asking her to check the forums. A scene had been playing out between a pair of characters, one who knew of the fruit, and one who had not.
The first, A, was a sweet girl who for some reason put the fruit all down with the other, normal fruit. the second, B, had woken up early and went to cut up some fruit fo his housemates for breakfast. Sweet. Not realizing, of course, that he had started to slice up the Poisonous Mango.
A accidentally startled B, and B whipped around. B’s player thought it prudent to make a roll at this point as he was holding a sharp knife and whipping around with sharp objects is bad. unfortunately, in doing so, he sliced his finger. with the knife. that he had been slicing poisoned mangos with.
That’s when they started messaging me.
Timidly I emailed the other GM’s, pointing to the forums and explaining the situation. They were able to say, yes, you clearly know nothing of either hedgefruit nor poisons. but they helped and B lost the finger.
He got kidnapped in the next game anyway so whatevs.
