From the Desk of Caranmegil

My Passions/Obsessions

I like hobbies. I obsess about them in my downtime when the family is asleep. Why? They keep me preoccupied and not dwelling on the monotonous life that I have found myself in! In all seriousness, I find them entertaining. The major groupings that I obsess over are chillis, RPGs, Dragon Dice, and interactive fictions.

First, chillis, commonly called “hot peppers” in the USA, are wonderful. I prefer flavor over intense heat. However, it doesn't mean that I'm not enjoying the intense heat of the Trinidad scorpion, which has a great flavor to me. I should know. I've eaten a raw one. There is just something about that endorphin rush that one gets when they eat something spicy and there is something about the tingling mouth. My hottest weaksauce chilli is the habanero, which is quite frankly an awesome fruit.

Second, I obsess over RPGs. I used to be really into DnD, but I'm not more into D6xD6 these days. It's really more about not having a rules system that bogs you down these days and gets in the way of a good time. Therefore, Lester Smith's D6xD6 is my recommendation right now for a rules system that doesn't get in the way.

Speaking of Lester Smith. He created in the 90s a little game called Dragon Dice. It's a fantasy dice game originally made by TSR and now made by SFR. It's fun. You play a single or combination of species and try to destroy your opponent utterly or take over two places. There's strategy! Sadly, no porpoise.

Finally, my latest passion is interactive fictions. These are the text adventure games from the late 70s onward like Zork and Adventure (renamed Colossal Cave Adventure). I've even made a few myself. Check out https://nerderium.com and click on the Masterful Interactions menu item. I've even packaged up interpreters into https://ifmachina.com to allow people to run their interactive fictions at any time and anywhere on any device.

So, that's a little about my passions. Hope it wasn't too boring. I always end up posting this at some point when I get new blogging software that doesn't work with the previous ones.

Keep it safe!