Last Saturday we went to ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger's place for a couple of reasons, among them picking up on the final bonus chapter of Mice and Mystics, the cooperative roleplaying board game we've been at since ... uh ... 2017? Something? I don't remember when we played last and as it turns out, this would be a problem.
Normally at the end of every session we record a 'save state', writing down on paper who's playing in the chapter, what equipment they have, how much cheese (the mana of the game), how many wounds, what room they're in, et cetera. We even do this at the end of the chapter so we don't get confused about where we are and why. But this time we couldn't find a save sheet for the last time we played. The most recent one we could find was dated about a year ago and referenced being midway through the second bonus chapter. We know we finished that, and we could swear we had started the last bonus chapter, but could we find a scrap of evidence to support that? No.
We couldn't even get a clear hint from the bags with every player's cards and stuff. Like, none of the characters we would be playing had any cheese or wound markers --- unlikely, but not impossible, especially if we'd been lucky at avoiding wounds but unlucky at getting cheese. But some of the characters we were not playing did have cheese. What explains this? As she looked through the description of the adventure bunnyhugger was sure we were partway through it --- one page had a gimmick in it, barrels rolling out of control --- that was very familiar. But there've been similar gimmicks in other chapters over the many years we've played the game.
After much debate we gave in and accepted, we were going to have to start from scratch. Disappointing since it meant likely we wouldn't be able to finish before we'd have to go home. As it turned out, we couldn't finish because of a string of bad luck rolls in the second room, which ate up both game time and real time, bringing us to a failure only halfway through. We weren't even able to get to the point where bunnyhugger's father notices he has cards for two different hammers and wonders why and we explain. (One gives you more dice when rolling to attack an enemy in the same space as you, the other gives you more dice when rolling to attack an enemy in an adjacent space, and since he's only in it for the dice-rolling we house rule that he's using whichever one gives the more dice at the moment.)
Disappointing to not get further, although going through what we were able to visit convinced me that we read the introduction to this chapter without actually playing it. Can't prove it, though.
After failing, we removed the items that we had acquired over the game and put everything back without making notes of what the game state was.
Now, let's enjoy pictures from that day at the beach!
Someone's sandcastle, complete with stone ceiling and flowers out front. Nice bit of work altogether.
The sandcastle, but photographed at my usual goofball angle, so that I can get a little view of bunnyhugger in the water. Also, I like how this picture looks.
Park bench in front of the swings observing the memory of Sharon Claus, who I hear loved swings.
Charmingly handmade sign by the bathrooms asking us to be nice and ... wait a minute, enhance.
Yeah, there's birds that set up homes on the signs in here. Totally understand their reasons, too, since this is in a hallway open on either side but sheltered against the rain and other unpleasant elements. I wasn't sure if there was an actual bird sitting in the nest while I was there but looking at the picture ... I'm still not sure.
Well, back to the beach, and to a sandcastle that's got a moat, but no stones or flowers.
Trivia: In support of General William T Sherman's Atlanta campaign the Louisville and Nashville Railroad ran an average of 160 cars over its single line of track (and supporting tracks) for two hundred days, bringing the Union supplies. Source: The Story of American Railroads, Stewart H Holbrook.
Currently Reading: NACA To NASA to Now, Roger D Launius.
