Achievement Unlocked: Broken DM

Ravi here.

I know we've talked about derailed sessions before, but there's a special level of derailed that happens when you manage to break the DM. And by break I mean incapacitate for the rest of the session due to laughter, stupidity, or some combination thereof. A couple of sessions ago, I had the wonderful privilege of breaking our poor DM.

Backstory: we had just accidentally woken up a really really old red dragon, and Indeah and I were rushing as fast as we could to warn some flying elves in the mountains. Of course, elves being elves, the archduke did not take us horribly seriously despite the fact that you could actually SEE the dragon and we were waving a couple of his enormous scales at anyone who would look. Someone manages to get some safety measures put up, while the archduke is accusing us of awakening the dragon for the express purpose of ruining his day. My character, being the hothead she is, was starting to retort angrily. Indeah, the smart one, covered my mouth and tried to make nice while the dragon circles closer and closer. Ravi generally continues to try to talk through her sister's hand, but to no avail. Eventually, the archduke orders his guards to "get these gibbering twits out of my sight!"

Of course, Ravi was having none of this. She threw off her sisters hand and shouted:

"I'LL GIBBER YOUR TWIT!!!"

Aaaand that's how we ended the session early.

Happy Rolling!

Achievement Unlocked: Broken Character

So, wow. Long time. My bad. Life got away from us with DM and me buying our house. Lots of stuff happened that wasn't all good, but it's all fixed now. For the first time since October, Ravi and I finally got the play again this weekend, and I thought "you know, I've ignored GR20 for FAR too long." Imagine my surprise logging on and finding OMG! We're still getting viewers! Like as many or more than when we were updating regularly. So at the very least, to say "Thank you" to all the people finding us through Pinterest and google searches, Indeah is back and ready for action! And hopefully Ravi will be too. :) I'll make you guys something nice too.

This weekend was a weekend for gaming. DM ran two games, Friday night the one with our friends M and B, and Saturday with Ravi. And Friday night, DM did something that I imagine all DMs secretly want to do. He pushed all the right buttons, said all the right things, and in-game, while in-character, pushed B's paladin right over the edge. What we witnessed that night was the messiest in-character breakdown I have ever and will ever seen.

On the second day of this campaign, we were given the task of finding the mayor of a small town and delivering a package to him. When we arrived at the village, the mayor, along with several others, had been taken by werewolves into the Forest of Madness. Sounds lovely, right? Quite the tourist spot. So our three-man party of B's paladin, M's inquisitor and my warmage delved into the woods. A few days later, we found a few of the werewolves, beat the heck out of them and M did his thing with the remaining one (there's a reason his class is called Inquisitor). We learned that the mayor had been handed over to someone else to get him OUT of the woods. Greeeat. Insert trying to find our way OUT for several sessions, clambering over an out-of-commission aqueduct and nearly getting killed by a giant enemy crab. (Fun fact, it wasn't the crab that nearly killed us. It was the lack of ranks in Acrobatics to stop B and M from falling to their deaths after we killed the crab.)

Friday night, we finally made it past the aqueduct. Into more forest we went, finding an abandoned outpost. We took out a medusa who had made herself a nice statuary there and found one lone, beaten werewolf. A quick fight later and he was subdued. B went around the corner to let M do what he does again. B's a paladin, he's upheld to the law and good, and the cost of doing or aiding chaos or evil is high for him. But what you don't know doesn't hurt you, right? So M would get our information, and B would look the other way while he did it. "So," M asks, "Where's the mayor?"

"I don't know!" cries the werewolf. "Someone took him."

You could almost hear the "snap". B removes himself from his hiding spot, grabs the werewolf and starts shaking him while yelling "WHAT is SO DAMNED IMPORTANT about this mayor?! Is he made of CANDY?!" Anger is understandable, it's been days and lots of near-deaths, and we're no closer than we were when we started. B, the character who upholds all that is lawful and good, shanks the wolf. Instant death on a defenseless enemy. Definitely evil. But that's not enough for B. B wants to know what the hell we're doing all this for now. He wants to know what's in the box we're meant to deliver. He declares himself as mayor and demands to open the box. At this point, DM and I are laughing so hard at B's reaction, I'm in tears, and DM is holding his sides. Every time we get a chance to breath, B interjects with "WHAT'S IN THE BOX, DM?!" and we collapse into more laughter. Finally, finally, DM and I compose ourselves enough for DM to describe the box. Inside is a letter. The letter...contains orders to evacuate the village we left more than a week of gametime ago.

I think every DM, no matter how kind, longs to push all the right buttons to make one of their players snap in-game. DM not only did this, but with a class who suffers greatest for breaking his alignment. I can only hope that this is the beginning of a very amusing downhill slide.

Happy rolling!

Big News for Indeah and DM!

Sorry there haven't been posts the past few weeks. DM and I have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and we will continue to for the next few weeks. You see, yesterday morning, DM and I officially became homeowners! A beautiful 1969 ranch house on a quiet dead-end street will be the site of all of our future gaming experiences. We just have to move in without killing each other first... but that's an adventure we'll have when we get to it! First, we've got to fix the place up a little before we move.

I wonder if we can make this more enjoyable by looking at it as leveling up?

Tableside Treats: Peanut Butter Brownie Bites

A few weeks ago, my boss had a baby shower at work (and now has a beautiful baby girl!) and due to me going on vacation, I didn't get the chance to throw into the pot to get her a gift. So, to make up for it, I offered to supply some treats.

Now, since I joined Pinterest, I went scanning all my favorite cooking blogs to save the recipes I wanted to make in one convenient area, so when it came time to decide what to make, I went scanning my "dessert" pins and found THESE.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
Recipe from Baked Perfection
Makes ~40 mini-brownies

1 box of your favorite brownie mix
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease 40 mini-muffin cups. (Grease liberally, as these WILL stick if not. PAM works great here.)

Prepare boxed brownie mix as directed. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups (about 1 heaping teaspoon). Bake for 13-15 minutes or until top is set and a toothpick inserted into center comes out slightly wet. After brownies are out of the oven, wait for centers to fall. This will happen upon cooling. If not then tap the centers with the back of a teaspoon to make a hole for the peanut butter. (I ended up needing to use the teaspoon and it worked great)

Place peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds then stir. While brownies are still warm spoon about half a teaspoon of peanut butter into the center of each brownie. Top with semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Cool completely in pan.

***********

These are heaven in bite-sized form. They're like Reese's Cups if Reese's Cups were made of brownies instead of chocolate. So good, they do not last. I went to work the day of the party with 36. I came home with two. TWO! The entire batch of 39 didn't last more than 24 hours. Not even the s'mores cookies were that popular (although I admit I didn't take them all in on one day). My own mother's made two batches for various events, and she said that both batches were gone by the time she managed to get to them. If you make this, be 100% sure to save a few JUST for you! And I don't need to tell you guys how perfect these are for a game night snack. They're a clean finger food, so just put them on a platter or in a bowl once they're cooled and you're good to go!

Happy rolling (and baking!)

Like Board Games? Read Roll a D6

Sorry folks, no big update today, things got a little hectic this week. So instead of a big post, I'm just going to plug a new blog belonging to a friend's husband, Rolling a D6. If you like board games and want to get reviews and stories about new, unusual or obscure games, give it a look, and tell them GR20 sent you. :)

Geek Gear: The Blade Runner Umbrella

When I think about what led to my geekdom, I keep getting drawn back to my father. As a child, I watched a lot of things with my family. With my mom and grandfather, we watched stuff like Early Edition, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Touched by an Angel. With my dad, though, I remember Star Trek: TNG, DS9 and Voyager, Babylon 5, and wrestling. We'd sit on the couch watching the original Star Wars films for days when it came on TV. I was indoctrinated into the world of Sci-Fi from my earliest memories thanks to my dad. One of his favorite movies is Blade Runner. It wasn't one I saw until I was older, but when I finally did, I loved it (what I could understand at that point, at least). Now, it's been a long time since I last saw it. I remember the plot, the characters, but some details escaped me. Like the umbrellas. I didn't remember the shafts of the umbrellas were lasers until I found this.

Thinkgeek Blade Runner Umbrella

Yeah, I'm not going to forget the umbrellas anymore. Because I want one. I know what Dad's getting for Christmas this year.

You Never Forget Your First

Do you remember your first ever session of D&D?

I got introduced to tabletop gaming the summer before I started college. Once every week, I went to the local store to play some random game with random people. We'd play three sessions, then new games would start. The store sold every tabletop game you could imagine and I got my hands dirty with some less common ones. Over three months, I lost two characters to one DM (the man had an actual "graveyard" for his kills!) One of the last games I joined in there was a classic D&D. We spent the first session just making our characters. I'd only used pre-made ones so I needed a lot of hand-holding. At the end, though, I had my first D&D character, a half-elf rogue named Ranel. The next Thursday, I sat down with the group, dice and character at the ready, to go on my first D&D adventure.

If you asked me what we did that game, I couldn't tell you. There was some kind of dungeon crawl, possibly some undead. What I do remember, though, is the pair of immature kids' characters making jokes at my character's expense across the table from me. When I got fed up, I simply said, "Cut it out. You know I could kill you both in your sleep." One scoffed back, and the DM stopped the game. "I just want to see something. You two, roll listen checks. You, move silent check." We rolled. DM looked at our results. "Congratulations, you failed your listen checks while sleeping. If this were actually in-game, Ranel would have slit both your throats with coup-de-graces."

Surprisingly, for the rest of that game, those two kids left me alone, and Ranel eventually moved with me to college, becoming my character for DM's game. She eventually became the leader of the team and continued to survive until level 25 or 26, where the game went on hiatus indefinitely from being epic-level broken. I think I owe some of my love of rogues to her, and even though I'll never remember who the DM was, I owe him one for that little interruption to show that girls can game with the best of them.

Character trait: Addiction: Pinning

In the Battletech tabletop game, during character design, you can buy traits. Positive traits improve prove your character and cost points. Negative traits give your character personality and earn you more points. Of course, they limit how many negative trait points you can earn to avoid people taking them all, but picking a few can make a game much more interesting. If I were to stat out myself realistically, I'd definitely have taken the Addiction trait. So let's get this over with...

Hi, my name's Indeah, and I'm addicted to the internet. There's always something online taking up most of my time. A game (or two), a forum (or five), or some kind of social networking site. A few weeks ago, I saw on one of my forums a thread about a new networking website called Pinterest. The girls on it were raving about it, and those of us not on it were curious. I asked a forum friend for an invitation, and later that day, I sat down and logged in. I've been hooked bad ever since.

So what IS Pinterest? It's a kind of site where you can store and share all your online favorites through saving, or "pinning" a picture and some text. You make boards with a topic as specific or general as you want and download a Pin It button to your browser. Find something you like while browsing around? Click Pin It, select what picture you want to pin from the page, what board you want to pin it to, and some text to describe it. When you next go to Pinterest, your pin will be there on that board, and clicking the picture will take you right back to the site you got it from. It's wonderful for saving foods you want to make, craft ideas and directions, home improvement directions, inspirational quotes, or just pictures you like (Yes I have a board just for geeky pictures. It's currently filled with Star Wars stuff). If you're bored, you can scan the things other people have recently pinned and repin anything you like to your own board. Whatever you pin is shared with your friends and followers. You can follow people who post stuff you're interested in, so you get quick access to things you might like. Likewise, people who like what you pin can follow you. You can follow specific boards or all of theirs for each person.

It's still being set up and improved upon, so joining is through invite only. You can get one from a friend who's on it already, or you can request one from the site and could take a few minutes or a few days, but it will come in. You can put in your interests and it'll suggest some people to follow. You can also search for your friends and follow them. The site can be tied into your Facebook or twitter accounts, or you can set up a completely separate one. It's very user friendly and quick to pick up. I can tell you from first hand experience, it's incredibly hard to put back down. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some pinning to do.

I've Got BAAAAAALLS OF CAAAAAAKE

Ravi here.

Today, I get to talk to you about BAAAAAAALLS OF CAAAAAAAAKE. Okay okay enough of the Duke (for now). I recently tried this delicious cake ball recipe.

UNFORTUNATELY, I was too busy prepping for the party to take pictures, and then I was a little too drunk DURING the party to remember to take pictures. The partygoers ate them all. They also ate all the jelly shots.

Anyway, how to prep this delightfully simple recipe:
1)Bake a cake according to package directions
2)Crumble cake while still warm (not hot, you'll burn yourself, I learned the hard way) into a bowl
3)Mix the crumbled cake with a package of frosting
4)Form the mixture into balls
5)Dip into confectioners coating

I had to do a last minute substitute for 5... I melted some semisweet baking chocolate and drizzled that over the balls. Didn't seem to faze anyone!

REMEMBER! These little buggers are powerful. Sugar highs may be a side effect.

Happy Rolling!

Welcome to the Disc

This has ended up being insanely long, so before we get started, I'll summarize this in a TLDR:
Like fantasy? Like laughing your ass off? Read Terry Pratchett. You'll wonder why you didn't sooner.

When I say "Discworld", what do you think of? If your answer's not "the best long-running fantasy humor series in the world", then get yourself to a bookstore, head to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section and look under P. Somewhere in there is Sir Terry Pratchett and his simply superb series, the saga of Discworld. Starting with The Colour of Magic and running up to his newest release in October, Snuff, Sir Terry (Yes, he's knighted) has spent over three decades amusing the world with the hilarious adventures of various people living on a flat disc of a world (hence, Discworld), balanced on the backs of four elephants who in turn stand on the back of the Great A'Tuin, an enormous turtle swimming through endless space. And they know this for a fact because they've gone down there and looked.

I've read hundred of books over my life, and not a single one has come close to the way Pratchett makes his characters live, makes you laugh, and weaves flavors of the real world into a fantasy one so well. Everywhere you look in his books, there's a reference to something you know, and if you don't know it, then someday, you'll be somewhere or read something and realize "Wait a second...!" For having over 30 books in a single series, he also makes them some of the easiest books to pick up and read I've ever seen. You can pick up any book in any of the storylines and start reading, and you won't feel like you needed to have read the previous ones to understand what happening. However, you will end up WANTING to read the previous ones.

I'd go into detail about the characters, but frankly there are too many, and you can't just summarize a cast as vibrant and color as the people of Discworld. How many fantasy adventures have you read where the main characters who save the day are old women? His witches, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, do it time and time again, and they kick ass while they're at it if they have to. Think the world, history, and life as we know it can be saved by an incompetent, cowardly wizard, the world's first tourist, and a trunk with a hundred legs and bottomless appetite? If there's a magical mess, Rincewind and Twoflower are almost always found in the middle of it, with Rincewind making a manic dash for the end and Twoflower taking pictures of the mess that's coming. How about a thief who's being blackmailed by a congenial tyrant into reforming public services anyway he can think of how? Moist von Lipwig does it in Going Postal and Making Money. And all the while, the most ragtag Night Watch in the world, made up of humans (including one who has letter certifying that he is, in fact, human), dwarves, trolls, vampires, werewolves, and a zombie, led by a human who was raised by dwarves, are hard at work protecting their city and their own by any means necessary. Even Death, yes the skeleton in the black cowl with a scythe, has his own stories (and is the most prolific character, appearing at least once in every book). And really, that's not even everyone. There are several once-offs and other storylines I haven't even mentioned, and countless other minor characters you'll see throughout each storyline (such as the Librarian. He was a man. Now he's an orangutan. Whatever you do, don't call him a monkey) and yet, despite there being dozens of names and faces that show up time and time again, they all have their own personalities, their own stories, you're thrilled when they make it through their next challenge and sad if they don't (hey, Death doesn't just hang around for no reason...except for with Rincewind.) You get to know them all as well as your own family, and you're sad when there's no more book to read.

I couldn't tell you how many years ago it was the DM handed me Guards! Guards! and told me to give it a read. It didn't win my interest, honestly. Then, I read Making Money and was actually hooked. Since then, I've read all but one Discworld book, and reread Guards! Guards! (I liked it MUCH better when I knew the characters and fully understood what was happening). Hands down, it's my favorite series, and I can't describe the admiration I have for Sir Terry, as a writer and as a person. A few years ago, my favorite author was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. A few years later, he's continuing to write and says he still has at least two more stories in him. As well as writing, he's still traveling, sharing with the world his encouragement for assisted death, and it feels like he's getting things done, or at least raising awareness. He hasn't let a diagnosis stop him at all. I don't know if I could be as strong as he gives the appearance of being with such a horrible diagnosis, but if it happened to me, I know who I would look up to for the strength to keep going. I already look up to him as an aspiring fantasy writer, and hope that maybe, someday, I'll have the chance to meet him before it's too late.

The Infamous Random Encounter Table

Ravi here.

Aaaaand we're definitely back. I was definitely not sure that I'd make it through THAT dungeon. In any case, here's the table:

1: Ramenlicious
2-10: Food
11-19: Reroll
20-29: Review Something
30-39: Books n Booze
40-49: Around the Campfire
50-59: Toss Up!
60-69: Geek Gear
70-74: Anything Dice
75-79: Stat Something
80-89: GoGoGadget
90-94: Sister Pick
94-99: In-Character Post
100: Anything Goes

THE RULES:
Sister A will roll a d100. The number on the d100 is the topic for next post. Sister A will then tell sister B that number, and sister B will proceed to write on that topic.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN???:
Ramenlicious: We will post about and possibly make something from Ramenlicious.
Reroll: We reroll and write about the next thing that comes up (duh).
Review Something: We will review something geeky, like a webcomic or a game.
Books n Booze: If it's Indeah's turn to write, you're gonna hear about books. If it's MY turn to write, you're gonna hear about booze. If I've already HAD booze, you might hear about both.
Around the Campfire: We tell you a tale about gaming.
Toss Up!: Roll 2 more times. Sister A tells sister B what she rolled. Sister B may pick or flip a coin.
Geek Chic: We'll write about stuff that we either have or like that is geeky. Like the d20 necklace that Indeah and DM gave me.
Anything Dice: If it's dice or dice-related, expect us to talk about it.
Stat Something: Ever wondered what the stats of the Killer Rabbit would be? It's kinda like that. Take something that amuses us, and stat it for a DnD game.
GoGoGadget: Nifty geek gadget articles go here.
Sister Pick: When sister A picks for sister B... and sister B hopes that she hasn't done anything to annoy sister A recently.
In-Character Post: When we post as if we are playing. It may terrify or amuse you. Or both.
Anything Goes: If I have to explain this, I'm gonna need more booze.

There you have it. Now I'm just gonna roll for Indeah...

Oh, she'll love this one.

Happy Rolling!

It lives!

- And THAT'S why we ended up with a mountain troll in the party. I know, crazy right? And don't even get me started on this efreeti I'm running with- what? We're back?

Hello lovelies, and welcome back! Sorry for the impromptu hiatus, Ravi and I made our little random topic generator, and promptly... well... lost it. Not our finest moment in the life of blogging adventurers. Since then, Ravi's been quite busy with her new job and I've undertaken the adventure of Camp NaNoWriMo for August. Just a few more days for that one for me. But for all the writing I've been doing for Camp, I've been neglecting you all, and I have so much to talk about! Hopefully our absence hasn't chased you all away, because while we're still minus one random topic generator (we have been failing our search checks to find it...), we're back and hopefully better than ever! Look for new posts starting next Tuesday!

We'll return to your regularly scheduled programming soon

Ravi's currently not feeling well, and we're still working on our new format for posting, which may include a change of schedule for us (but not for you, dear readers. We're still going to be Tuesday and Saturday.) Please be patient with us, and we'll return to your regularly scheduled nerdery soon.

Until then, happy rolling!

Pathfinder - D&D Powered Up

Hello readers! Since Ravi got to post on Tuesday when it was my turn, I'm taking over for this Saturday to even us out while the Random Topic table is completed!

I've mentioned in a few articles previously about the game DM and I have been playing with our friends Matt and Bryan. What I haven't said yet is that this game? It's not D&D. It looks like D&D, it plays like D&D, and for all intents and purposes, it IS D&D. But it's not quite. It's called Pathfinder.

Basically, Pathfinder was made by a group of people who found too many minor issues with D&D, how characters were made, and how it played in 3.5 rules and decided "We can do this." Well, maybe it didn't happen exactly like that, but it certainly feels like it. Classes that were lacking a bit got boosted, techniques that were complicated got simplified (combat maneuvers like tripping, grappling, disarming and the like has become SO much easier to calculate). DM says in his opinion, one of the most important differences between D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder is that it encourages people to think hard between prestiging out or sticking with a single class for 20 levels due to all the improvements made to flesh out the core classes and make them more interesting and desirable, especially with melee classes. Magic has also been simplified without being weakened and casters can mesh better with the melee-ers without overstepping themselves. One of my favorite changes? Instead of applying only to the one opponent you designate per round, the feat Dodge applies as a flat AC bonus. No declaring who you're dodging, just +1 to your AC, which is amazing in large combats.

The great thing is that since Pathfinder is based strongly on 3.5 D&D, you can easily mold the two together when it does come to prestige classes. 3.5 certainly has a much larger variety to choose from. Pathfinder offers plenty of its own unique classes and prestiges though, especially in the Advanced Players Guide and their newest addition, Ultimate Magic. Bryan has taken the Alchemist base class with Master Chymist (I swear DM says that's how it's spelled. I have no idea) prestige for a test drive. They're basically casters who prepare all their spells as potions or bombs, and interestingly, they have a potion that turns them into a Mr. Hyde version of themself. We found it an interesting addition to a team (even though his Mr. Hyde version decided it was best to run off and start slaughtering enemies after the rest had run and the potion wasn't going to wear off. Matt decided that Mr. Hyde wasn't compatible with the rest of the group and made him make a new character.) Monsters have also been pumped up, and creatures that were once not so much a threat or not too intimidating at least LOOK as threatening as they should from their pictures. The art in the Pathfinder books is spectacular.

So if regular D&D is getting dull or you're frustrated with some of the pitfalls of the game, look into Pathfinder. It's D&D at a brand new level and definitely worth a try for your next campaign.

Happy rolling!

Happy Late 50th Post and 51st Post Surprise!

Ravi here.

In honor of the 50th post/Tuesday, I present a cupcake cake.

Yes.  That is a full-sized cake made to look like a cupcake.  Yes, I used a pan.  Yes it was delicious.

ON TO 51ST POST BUSINESS!!!

After much deliberation (read: we can't cook that fast and I was seriously considering making everything from ramenlicious, then we had a brilliant idea [Namely, not doing anything from ramenlicious]), we have decided to make Tuesday no longer food-exclusive.  What we decided is much nerdier and much more epic.

INTRODUCING: Random Encounter Tuesdays
If you roll dice, this is fairly self-explanatory.  I make a table of possible topics to write on, we roll a d100, and whatever that number is on the table... well, that's the topic for the day.  I'm thinking we announce the topic the week before in order to give some time for us to find and/or write on our given subject matter.  Indeah can confirm or deny. Well, we're basically the DMs of this blog, and only the DM knows what the random encounters are going to be before they happen (unless someone's side-eyeing the Monster Manual.) Let's keep this to ourselves until the day of.

I should have the tables ready to go for next time... expect fudged rolls until we work out the bugs (we love you guys!).

I kinda want to post the finished table on the site, but I will ask for sissy's blessing first, so don't kill me if I deny you access. I don't see why not. Knock yourself out :)  Only we can know EVERYTHING, after all.

Happy Rolling!

50 Ways You Know You Play Too Much DnD

It's really easy to get completely sucked into DnD and tabletop games. The basic game mechanics are simple, the stories and characters can be fun (with a good DM and other players), and if you're more advanced, you can do anything you want. Eventually, and I promise you it will happen, the games you play will begin to trickle into real life... In honor of our 50th post, Ravi and I give you...

50 Ways You Know You Play Too Much DnD!

1) You begin to wonder what popular characters or historical figures' abilities scores are. Ex: "Hey DM, what do you think the Hulk's strength score is? Who do you think has the higher one between the Hulk and the Thing?"

2) You begin to wonder what YOUR ability scores are. 
*Bonus bonus points if you get depressed thinking about how low your own hit points are.

3) When you trip, can't open a jar, forget something, or are generally unlucky, you figure you just rolled a natural 1.

4) The same goes for doing something awesome, epic, or lucky. Obviously you just rolled a 20.

5) When you see someone believing someone who's obviously lying, you think "Someone just failed his Sense Motive." Or, if the lie is just that crazy and is still believed, "Well, in his defense, that guy's put a ton of skill points into Bluff."
* Bonus points if you think this while watching election footage.

6) When watching a fight sequence, you wonder how many hit points the participants have.
* Bonus points if you calculate how much damage the weapons do plus the wielder's assumed strength bonus versus how many obvious hits they take to figure out an estimated HP total. Extra bonus points if you can pinpoint a critical hit or sneak attack.

7) You can't see anything you think is cool without wondering how stating it out for DnD would work out. (I still want my pet Glyptodon, DM....)
*Bonus points if you actually got your DM to agree. Extra bonus points if you, as the DM, did it.

8) You count succeeding on a task as boosting your points in that skill. (Those s'mores cookies? Totally a point in Craft: Baked Goods.)

9) You wonder what the different potions taste like.

10) When you go to a bar, you look around for any shadowy figures alone at tables.

11) Road rage? No, they've just got a level in Barbarian. 

12) When cooking or doing dishes, you wonder about the mechanical differences between cast iron and stainless steel. What's going to do more damage in event of invaders?

13) You want to learn how to pick a lock. You never know when you're going to need to make an Open Lock check.

14) You actually know what a Kender is.

15) You can't watch the Olympics anymore without thinking about all the checks the participants have to keep making.

16) You get into heated arguments over the alignment of the average person.

17) You know better than to hang out in graveyards. Undead ALWAYS attack when you're in a graveyard.

18) You find yourself frequently explaining to people that dice come in more varieties than 6 sided, or, in the case of being asked to bring some dice to an event, you bring your whole bag.

19) When you have an event to wear a costume, you have a hard time choosing what character of yours you want to dress up as.

20) In said costume, when someone asks you who you are, you end up telling someone your character's whole backstory.
*Bonus points if they didn't ask.

21) You think about who would star/voice your character and teammates in a live action/animated movie.

22) You feel sad that you don't have a Ye Olde Tavern nearby where you can get a mug of ale, a turkey leg, and tough, chewy bread. (And if you do, it's your favorite place to eat.)

23) When a friend suggests drinking games, you wonder how many Constitution checks you'll have to make.

24) You call your pet your familiar.

25) You think about what kind of Charisma bonus you'll get from a cute outfit in the store window.

26) You accidentally call a rock star a bard.

27) When someone asks what languages you speak, you answer "Common."
*Bonus points if you have it as a known language on Facebook.

28) When you get injured, you wish you had a potion or a cleric. Seriously, you'll just need a cure light. You don't have that many HP.

29) Ever since you learned that a Level 1 Commoner could be killed by a housecat, you're much more cautious around Mittens.

30) When most people are stuck in rush hour traffic, they long for jetpacks. You long for a Fly spell.

31) You've wondered what it would feel like to level up.
*Bonus points if you're pretty sure you've felt it.

32) You'd be much more open to flying if all planes came equipped with giant rings of Feather Fall.

33) When something interrupts your boredom, you consider it a plothook.

34) The best gift someone can give you is a new set of dice in your favorite colors.

35) Your alcohol of choice is Crown Royal, because there's no better booze than one that comes with a free dice bag.

36) You think of actions and movement in 6-second turns. Ex: How many turns will it take to cross the office hallway?

37) You wonder about the conversion rate between DnD gold and your local currency. How much would a belt of giant's strength really cost?
*Bonus points if you've actually determined a figure. (Well, if you just find how many GP make up a pound to find the weight of a single coin, then research the current value of gold...)

38) You know how to determine the grapple check for a thumb war or arm wrestling.

39) Instead of doing a haunted house for Halloween, you turn your home into a dungeon crawl.

40) You daydream of it being as easy as putting two skill points in Speak Language to completely learn a foreign language.

41) You'd have paid a lot more attention in class if you were learning Draconic, Celestial, Giant, Druidic...

42) You think a bag of holding would make vacations and moving house so much easier.

43) You can no longer call dice just dice for board games. You play Monopoly with 2d6. (Or 1d12, if you want to give it some love.)

44)You know there's no greater stress relief than making a character sheet of someone who's pissing you off, then sending it through the shredder.

45) You legitimately forgot that not all monks are martial arts masters.

46) You wonder what you took for the feat you got for being Human.

47) Many people hang fuzzy dice in their car. Your hanging plush d20 are not as common.

48) Your idea of a good evening alone is sitting down and rolling up a new character.

49) You've realized just how many of these apply to you.
*Bonus points if you're thought of more.

50) You read Girls Rolling 20s :)

Thanks for sticking around for 50 posts. Onward to 100!

Happy rolling!

Tuesday Tasties: Rosemary Bread!

Ravi here.

Little-known fact: there is a very soft spot in my heart for rosemary.  It is a delicious herb.  So delicious, in fact, there is a rosemary bush on our patio that provides me with a supply that I can never deplete.

Yes.  My love runs THAT deep.

Today, I'm going to share with you a recipe that has always been a big hit with family and friends... when I feel like sharing my precious.  I present to you: rosemary bread!

I first came across this recipe while looking for a rosemary-based side dish for a romantic dinner that I was helping a friend plan and cook for his girlfriend.  The link to the recipe is here.  I really can't explain it any better than they did, so I'm going to refrain from posting the whole thing.

Fair warning: it is a fairly dense loaf.

Happy Eating and Rolling!

I WANNA CUDDLE AN ELDRITCH HORROR!!!!

Ravi here.

If you have been around nerds long enough, H. P. Lovecraft's non-Euclidian Elder God has been brought up in conversation at some point.  You know about Cthulhu and have probably seen a horribly punny "O Rl'yeh?" cracked at some point.  I have seen this Eldritch horror, and...

IT'S SO FLUFFY I COULD DIE!!!!

Behold, the adorable Squishable Cthulhu.  I JUST WANNA PICK HIM UP AND SNUGGLE THAT LIL BUGGER.

As you can see, he still causes people to fail SAN checks (as evidenced by my droolery), but the Squishable site promises he won't devour your soul, so it's probably all good.

SO.  FLUFFY.

Happy Rolling!

Geek Eats: Easy Pizza

This weekend, with Matt and Bryan over, we decided to try a new Mediterranean restaurant nearby. I scanned the menu, but being addicted to a specific Mediterranean restaurant below my office, I didn't want to compete with my "usual," which was closed on Sundays. So as I scanned the menu, trying to find something that appealed to me, something in the "appetizer" menu caught my eye. It read: 7" Pita Pizza. My major Mediterranean addiction is pita bread; I like pizza. Jackpot.

We arrive home, I open my pizza, and it's perfect: pepperoni, finely diced onions and thick, gooey mozzarella cheese, if there's any tomato sauce at all it's very, very light handed. Considering this place is right next to a local pizza parlor, I didn't know what to expect, but I'm in love! And it gave me a great idea for future dinners, too. DM and I love pizza, but we usually get it frozen. In fact, I've got a frozen flatbread right next to me for lunch (and I'm wishing it were another from the Mediterranean place). When you find recipes to make your own, they usually involve a several-hour-long process to make the dough, directions for the sauce, basically telling you how to make everything but the meats from scratch. As a working woman, when I get home, the last thing I usually want to do is dig into dough and process some tomatoes. But you know, it made me realize, there are actually a lot of things you can use as a base to replace the dough and make an easy pizza, and because of their sizes, you can often personalize them to your guests and players!

- Bagels and english muffins have the benefit of being small enough you can use a toaster oven to make these versus heating up a full-size oven and you get two servings for each bagel or muffin.
- Pita bread's practically a pre-made flatbread or personal pan pizza dough. Use a very light hand with tomato sauce or even go with a garlic sauce (butter or cream) for a white pizza versus tomato based and just melt the cheese to crisp up the pita for a soft but not soggy pizza.
- Crescent roll dough (see Pizza Roll-ups)
- Tortillas make an amazing Mexican pizza. Fry 2 tortillas in a pan with oil until crisp. Top one tortilla with seasoned beef and refried beans, then cover them with the other tortilla. Spread cheese on top of the second tortilla, pop in the oven for a few minutes until the beans are warmed up and the cheese melted. Top with lettuce, salsa, sour cream, or any other desired cold toppings and serve.

While the Mexican pizza is best for small parties or a regular dinner, the other four options give you quick and easy alternatives to ordering pizza or pulling a frozen one out of the fridge when you've got a group to serve. If you've got an easy alternative single-serving pizza crust that I didn't mention (specifically easy because I've seen a potato crust pizza, but that's not quick or easy in the least), feel free to let me know in the comments. Otherwise, enjoy! 

Happy rolling

D&D: Breaking the Stereotypes

The other day, my coworker asked me about my weekend plans. Well, for the long holiday weekend, we've got Matt and Bryan coming to visit for an epic weekend of gaming, starting, well, yesterday as of the time this gets published. So when my coworker asked our plans, I answered simply "dork stuff." It's easier than explaining D&D, video games, and in-depth discussions about history, politics, and gaming (not at the same time). Inevitably, though, she asked for clarification, and I had to try to explain what exactly D&D is. I am... not the world's best orator. I stumble over words and have a hard time explaining things to people. I still don't think I quite managed to explain what D&D was, and at the very least, I made it clear that it was a geek activity. After all, everyone knows the people who play D&D are the geeks, dorks and nerds.

When I was talking with DM about my day later, I got to thinking about D&D and its players. Everyone knows the stereotype: overweight, hairy, un- or underemployed, Cheeto-dust-stained and mountain dew breathing, basement-dwelling 30-year-olds rolling dice and pretending to be wizards and warriors in between games of World of Warcraft. The word "hopeless" generally is a qualifier to describe them. And sure, like every stereotype, you'll find someone somewhere who fits that description. But then you look at Ravi and me, two young woman with very different lives who happily dive into worlds of magic and myth. I look at many of the people I've gamed with over the years - some of them have fiances, wives, children; many of them own their own houses and are in successful careers; some of them hate Cheetos and Mountain Dew. Some people you might not expect also play D&D. Robin Williams was (or still is, I'm not sure on the details) one of the most desired DMs in LA. Vin Diesel, yes, Mr. Action Hero, one of the living embodiments of "Cool", also was a HUGE D&D player. There are probably plenty of other Hollywood stars, rock idols, or sports heroes who at some point in their lives adventured in the worlds of a DM's creation. Whoever they are, whoever we are, we've all got one thing in common: we like to have fun. We never entirely grew out of enjoying games and "make believe". My mantra is "The world makes me grow old. Nothing but me makes me grow up." D&D is simply one more way of appeasing my inner child.

That's part of why Ravi and I started this blog. We're breaking the imaginary mold people have about D&D dorks. We wanted to find other women like us and be our own little corner of the internet to say "You've got it wrong. D&D players have many faces, and we're one of them." We wanted to get women who were curious about playing but thought "it's a guy's game" to know it's okay to join in too. We want to be a place to show the world that, just like every other stereotype, the one of the D&D player is not at all standard, starting first and foremost with "Girls can roll 20s too."

Happy Rolling!