What i hate most about Power Players

In the wonderful world of role play, there are many types of people you are likely to come across. People like myself, who take role play very seriously, tend to become their character for the duration of the session and sometimes even beyond, such as if you ask what my character would do in a given situation (I live with my Dungeon master, so I get these kinds of questions, and I do indeed become my character in order to answer the question).

To a certain extent, one expects most players to attempt to maximise their character's utility, by giving them good weapons, armour (if they use it) an other items. This helps to make characters just that little bit more uber and helps to differentiate the higher level characters from the lower (XP aside). It is a generally accepted thing that your character will have weaknesses, just like real people and that is the fun of role play - you take on the quirks of your character in order to play them as a unique and flawed individual. This is the heart and soul of role play.

Yet every now and then (and increasingly more often) you play a campaign with someone who just sucks balls. These people I call 'Power Players' and their sole goal in role play is to 'Kill shit and get stuff'. Now i have a number of issues with this mentality and style of role playing, and I will outline them now.


1)They have no respect for the versatility or subtitles of class. They normally play characters like Fighters, and will only be satisfied with that character if his strength is really high; completely ignoring the concept of being a martial warrior who's abilities lay in their speed and accuracy, or even giving them a quirky history, such as they always wanted to be a fighter, but childhood infirmity has made them weak, so they normally try and avoid combat - even though they are a fighter (bahaha!). Power players will sometimes play other classes (particularly if they are an 'experienced' power player) but generally, they lean towards the same sort of rule :- max'd out prime requisites or the character is 'shit'.

2) They apply a stock standard scaffold of 'what a fighter does' or 'what a mage does'to their characters, often ignoring the fact that their character has a history, a personality, and alignment...these things contribute to how you should play your character...they help you to determine what your character would do in a given situation. It also leads a lot of them to become hostile towards more subtle classes like Bards and Druids, because their mentality disallows them to conceive of the possibility that a character's strengths might actually lay in the ability of the player to STAY IN CHARACTER. Now some power players will occasionally call on some of their character's quirks and oddities and personality aspects at different times, but mostly, they are just them, playing a character on a sheet, and they rarely become their characters or expend any real effort in the playing of the role. This is irritating for the following reason.

3) Power players are without exception, the loudest and most obnoxious players in any given campaign. They are the ones who gloat when they kill something, or throw their dice across the table when they roll badly or get injured. Consequently they are normally the ones who eat all the Dorritos and drink all the Coke too. They make the game not fun for other people, and you never even get the benefit of meeting their characters...except in the rare instance when the person in question is forced to role play out of a sticky situation, in which case they are normally the arrogant one, attempting to use their charisma of 17 to influence someone, but doesn't actually know how to be charismatic and so expects the DM to just give it to them on the basis of them having a charisma of 17 (because apparently it doesn't matter what you say..its HOW you say it....)

In conclusion..power players suck.

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Working with eggs.

Cooking for someone with a chicken egg allergy has led me to a wonderful world of duck eggs, quail eggs and other eggs. And if you have ever had any doubt, I am here to assure you that cooking with duck eggs is WONDERFUL! The taste is beautifully rich and contrary to popular belief, I believe they taste better than chicken eggs.

So far, my favourite recipe for treating those in your life who are limited to duck eggs is a duck egg baked custard. This rich and creamy treat is sure to set mouths watering! Serves 6.

Ingredients

• 2 whole duck eggs
• 2 extra duck egg yolks
• 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 1/2 a vanilla bean
• 2 cups of cream

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F)
2. Place cream in a saucepan over a medium heat. scrape the bean half and place both the seeds and the pod in the cream.
3. While the cream is heating, add the eggs, yolks and sugar to a bowl and whisk until pale and creamy.
4. Add egg and sugar mix slowly to the hot cream, stirring all the time.
5. Continue to stir custard regularly until it begins to thicken - coating the back of your spoon.
6. From here you can either use this custard as a pouring custard by removing from the heat and cooling, or you can create a delicious baked custard, which can be eaten on their own, or turned into crème brulee!
7. To make a baked custard, take 6 half cup ramekins and place them in a deep baking dish. pour the custard into the ramekins, distributing evenly.
8. Pour hot water into the deep baking dish so that the water comes half way up the side of the ramekins, creating a Bain Marie. Place the whole tray in the oven and cook for roughly 35 minutes, or until the tops of the custards start to brown (if this starts to happen before the first 15 minutes are up, cover your dish with tin foil to stop them from burning).
9. Once cooked, remove your custards from the oven and allow to cool in the water bath.
10. To enjoy your custards, they can be eaten warm or cold. you can also add some fine sugar to the top and blast them with a butene torch to make crème brulee!

You can make anything you can normally make with chicken eggs using duck eggs and these delicious baked custards are a perfect example!

The perfect curry.

This curry is the perfect lamb curry, for any occasion. Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 500grams diced lamb leg
• 3 large potatoes - diced
• 2 large onions - diced
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon of your favourite masala (my favourite is kitchen king)
• Extra chilli if your masala is not as hot as you would like your curry.
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 600grams of diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups of strong beef stock
• 1/2 cup of red wine
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil on a medium heat. Once hot, add lamb and potatoes and cook until meat is browned all over.
2. Add onions and cook until onions are soft, then add spices and garlic - heat until the spices' aromas start to become very strong.
3. Add stock, wine and tomatoes, cover and turn hear down low.
4. Cook for roughly 2 hours, until liquids have reduced and potatoes are soft and disintegrating. Season to taste with salt and pepper
5. Serve hot with basmati rice and popodoms

I now drive....on my own.

I have my P's!

Shop is doing great.

Wish I had an extra 12 hours in a day.

Nearly finished Jordis' Oleria Cardigan! woop!

Uni Marks

I got my marks today.

Psychology = HD

Human Biology = HD

Homeostasis = HD

Sociology = D

I was pretty disappointed with Sociology, not because the mark is bad, because a distinction is pretty darn good, but because I was only one mark off a High Distinction. That really shits me. If I had just studied it a bit more...but I was fairly complacent with sociology. I just get it and it makes sense to me. What fucked me up was contemporary theorists. I can never remember who said what... :P

REALLY happy with a HD for Homeostasis. I was worried about that one. Biology can be so fucking hard sometimes! Especially when you involve hormones. I really wish I had paid more attention when I was sorting my enrolment. For those who don't know I found out half way through semester (after I was already starting to struggle) that Homeostasis is a 200 unit....for 3rd year students...but by that point it was too late to change to one more manageable. In many ways i am glad I did it. I can add a bit of endocrinology to my degree, and I am NEVER taking another biology unit again. I don't know what I was thinking...I didn't even do bio in high school...I really screwed myself...but I got HD's so I didn't crash n burn at least. It is kind of funny that the units I thought I'd do badly in Idid well in and the units I thought I'd do well in I did poorly in...

My psych mark was 90...as it should be. If I had gotten any less I would have been very disappointed.