HEALTH UPDATE: Better Living Through Chemistry

Valentine's Day at Barden Lake, Haysden Country Park, Tonbridge

This week has seen the end of my recent flurry of medical appointments. For seven days I had been taking my own blood pressure at home (in the morning and evening) and while it varied, it appeared to average out to be quite normal and within the range it should be in the wake of of my aneurysm.

I was recording this as I had an appointment with what I thought was a hypertension nurse, but it turned out to be a clinical pharmacist whose remit went beyond just checking my blood pressure to ensuring I was on the right medications as well.

She was very pleased with my blood pressure, and the news about my radical dietary adjustments.

I've now been prescribed a new drug - the name of which neither Rachel nor I can remember - to replace one medication which was clashing with another that I had recently been prescribed. We're still waiting for this new medicine to come through "the system".

Then a couple of days later I returned for my final appointment of this month's batch of GP surgery visits: to have my INR (International Normalised Ratio, a standardised measurement of how long it takes blood to clot) checked after a three month gap.

My target for this is a score between two and three, and mine registered as 2.5, so I couldn't be more spot on. This means no more checks for another three months.

Clearly my level of blood thinners is working perfectly and my new diet hasn't affected things negatively.

As Rachel is still recovering from a surgical injection in her knee (to tackle her arthritis) and was under the weather anyway from a bad cold, we decided to take our therapeutic walk at the nearby Haysden Country Park yesterday rather than going further afield.

Saturday saw a welcome break in the rainy weather. The sun was actually out! This meant there were lots of dog-walking families taking advantage of this temporary respite in the British weather, which - in turn - meant a lot of sniffs for Alice and loving attention for her from other humans.

We did a full circuit around Barden Lake (my first in about nine months), taking pictures of the trees and the lake's wonderfully still waters for my growing "tree safari" portfolio, and ending up at the outdoor café where Rachel and I both indulged in diet-busting sausages (slavered in tomato ketchup) in a crusty bap. It was divine!

Haysden Country Park, Tonbridge

"Through Dangers Untold, and Hardships Unnumbered..."

It's Valentine's Day once more. Rachel and I both surprised each other this lunchtime with wonderful cards (mine's the Baby Yoda card and I gave Rachel the photo card) and appropriate presents.

I got her the book of Winnie The Pooh book of  quotes, affirmations, and observations as well as the miniature sideboard for her current dolls house project.

Rachel gave me the gloriously illustrated Bestiary for Jim Henson's Labyrinth, which - as well as being a beautiful insight into this world - I reckon could also serve as inspiration for my upcoming (possibly) Twilight Sword campaign.

Here are a couple of the gorgeous spreads from the book, illustrated by Iris Compiet (in a very Brian Froud style, as he was the original concept artist on the movie) with text by S.T. Bende:

How Do You Handle Romance In Your Games?

The greatest thing, you'll ever learn,
Is just to love, and be loved in return.

- Nature Boy, David Bowie (from Moulin Rouge OST)

"Mawwiage, that bwessed awwangement, that dweam wifin a dream! ... Twoo wuv will follow you forevah, so tweasure your wuv."

- The Impressive Clergyman (Peter Cook), The Princess Bride (1987)

It's Valentine's Day, so I have a question for my fellow gamers: how do you handle "romance" in your games?

I'm not talking about a quick bunk-up with a barmaid (a cliché of most teenagers' D&D games) but genuine courtship, marriage etc

Has such a scenario ever cropped up in your games or don't your campaigns run long enough to contemplate the need for love and heirs?

Has anyone been involved in a game (non-Pendragon or Blue Rose) where a player has gone the whole hog in his attempts to woo a maiden fair: cards, flowers, dancing, cinema dates, meals out etc?

Since I first started thinking about this aspect of long-running roleplaying game campaigns many years ago, it feels as though the topic of in-game love and romance has become more de rigueur with the younger generation of gamers.

However, that still doesn't mean it's easy to deal with in a satisfying manner.

Romance is a staple sub-plot of many comic books (Comic Book Resources has a list of the 15 most screwed-up relationships, if you need reminding) , but have you, for instance, introduced it into a tabletop superhero campaign?

I know this is something that Aaron Allston advocated through 'blue-booking' in his legendary Strike Force campaign; is this how you would handle romance in your game, would the process be entirely role-played or would there be some mechanics and dice-rolling involved?

Personally I'm in the "more roleplay, less mechanics" camp.

Is romance - either being player-characters or between a PC and an NPC - something you'd even think about or encourage as a gamesmaster or player?

Do characters date? Do their iPhones come with Tinder, Ashley Madison, Grindr etc installed?

Then, from romance, comes the question of children....

While the concept of a generational game is integral to Pendragon, do you think about it in other long-running campaigns?

In a contemporary game have your player-characters become parents and had to deal with daycare, nannies etc while they run off to fight crime? Or is this too close to the real life that they are escaping from in your games?

The delightful Ginny Di has produced a couple of videos on this topic, including a round-up of possible Dungeons & Dragons game mechanics to help navigate this touchy subject:

Look Out For The Little Guy!

This morning, Rachel and I exchanged Valentine's Day presents and cards. She had very kindly got me the superb Ant-Man trilogy on Blu-Ray and a pack of Colin & Connie The Caterpillar mini rolls for us to share.

Her wheelie bin-themed card was a stroke of genius as she is always mocking me for my obsession with ensuring the right rubbish bins are out on the right morning. And, of course, today not only happens to be Valentine's Day but it's also green bin day... so winner!

I gave Rachel a mushy card, a pair of biographical novels (Cilka's Journey and The Tattooist of Auschwitz) about life in Nazi concentration camps (not very romantic-sounding, but the genre interests Rachel) and a handbag that she'd been after for a while.

Colin (left) and Mister Mind (right)

While tidying all this up from the dining room table so Rachel could resume her work day, I noticed that Colin The Caterpillar bears more than a passing resemblance to my favourite classic Captain Marvel comic book villain, Mister Mind.

Coincidence, separated at birth, or secret identity blown?

You decide...