Berttheduck

No that's about right. My initial pre campaign prep was read the book and understand the factions, session zero to see what themes my players wanted to explore and what factions they were interested in interacting with.

Between sessions I only needed about 10 minutes to think about the next game, who was the job against, who's upset or happy with the crew currently, what factions plans are the players ignoring so are progressing unopposed and what does that look like. Was there any fallout from their last job. The way the city is set up every time your crew gets ahead it will please someone and upset someone else I found that made prepping super easy. Then all I needed was a list of random names for NPC's and I was happy making stuff up on the fly for the most part.

Some of them bigger things needed more thinking and prep like when they broke into the ghost hunters headquarters (I can't remember the name, guys follow the death crows and wear masks), that needed a little more time. Or when they accidentally summoned a demon I needed to work out what it wanted and how it worked. Side note demons are excellent fun and should be terrifying forces of nature in blades.

My longest running campaign was Blades (once weekly for over a year). It's still my favourite system.

The core mechanics are really easy, GM sets the narrative scene and the player says how they respond then builds a dice pool and adjust for difficult actions or ineffective approach (position and effect - how good it will be if you succeed and how bad it will be if you fail).

The game is built to play on the fly with very minimal prep, the scenario in the book is a totally fine place to start and lead into my game. If you run through all the steps of the meta game (updating faction relations and you'll have a good idea which group now has beef with the players crew and as such likely happenings for your next session.

Get used to skipping the boring bits, blades works best when the PCs are doing crazy stuff and using the flashback mechanics to get into or out of trouble. Do any essential prep the crew wants to do for a job but then skip to the engagement roll and just get started, don't let them spend ages planning all the little details.

Don't be scared to throw really challenging scenarios at them (especially after they level up a bit), the PCs have loads of ways to get out of trouble and trauma is beneficial to them initially as it lets them gain more xp. Also death is always a narrative choice so don't worry about killing them by accident.

The setting is amazing, haunted steampunk Victorian Venice so you can lean into the spooky as much as you want. Remember it's always dark and life is pretty terrible for everyone who isn't super rich.

I'm happy to answer questions or bounce ideas with you.

Hope your game goes well.

An important lesson was learned that day. Never stand on the receiving end of an enema, incision and drainage, manual disempaction, decompression or in front of someone who says "I feel sick".

You probably need to do some self reflection and examine your feelings towards women as to why you have those views. Have you considered therapy to help you with these feelings?

Regarding coping without sex, for me it was always more the physical and emotional contact than sex itself. Hugs with friends and family help. Maybe something like a massage (not necessarily a happy ending) could help, having someone else pay attention to you and the physical touch with another human might help.

Eh medicine is never black and white. People are all different and drugs have slightly (or wildly) different effects for different people. Non regulated drugs have bigger variations in quality, purity and dosage so people can have very different experiences.

Some people need drugs, diabetics need insulin for example. And some people really benefit from drugs if they are depressed or have other long term conditions etc. So your stance that people who don't take drugs are better off is maybe coming from a flawed assumption, certainly if you don't need drugs that's usually better but if you do need them the right drugs can be a big help for people.

It's much more grey with recreational drugs in terms of benefits. Alcohol for example is actively harmful most of the time for most people, especially with things like binge drinking in the UK. Studies show there are likely some benefits from moderate alcohol consumption but often in combination with things like the Mediterranean diet so take from that what you will.

So in the UK official guidance is to encourage patients to record encounters provided it doesn't compromise other patient privacy. This is because it helps patients remember what's said and medics shouldn't have anything to hide with their patients.

I had a pair of Docs which fell to bits on me after about a year of regular use. I've since got 2 pairs of boots and a pair of trainers from Solovair and, after wearing in, they are the most comfortable footwear I've ever owned. I've worn, mostly the boots, every day for work for about 2 years now with no problems at all. I've even managed to get them mostly waterproof with liberal applications of dubbin wax.

Check out the outlet store (like on the main website), you can pick up shoes with slight defects or end of lines for significant discounts over new.

It really is a versatile game, especially with mods.

Now that is a lot of Skyrim. I do have to ask is that 5k hours playing or like 3k hours getting all the mods to work properly? I found modding Skyrim and playing modded Skyrim were 2 slightly different games when I was exploring mods for it.

That seems reasonable. Far cry Blood Dragon had a really entertaining tutorial. Very tongue in cheek funny and lots of sarcastic comments from the main character.

So portal 1 is about 75% tutorial but it's done so well you don't mind.

The long grind tutorials have definitely put me off games before though especially in some older games.

There are multiple mods which redo the start, some even have totally different locations and challenges compared to the default.

Been to long since I played to remember what they are called but worth a look maybe.