I think this book is my second-favorite of the Secret Novels (or Hoid novels), after Tress, and potentially tied with Yumi or just ahead of it. Like many of the Secret Novels you can get through most of it without knowing too much of the Cosmere, although, like many of the Secret Novels, portions of the climax and falling action might sound like nonsense to you if you aren’t caught up with The Cosmere. Although if you’ve read up to Stormlight 5 you’ve likely read all the rest of the Cosmere, if you’re one of those Cosmere readers that reads each series in order rather than in publication order, Stormlight 5 has the many relevant connections to what’s going on in this story. I would also say that Isles of the Emberdark would also be highly relevant to this story.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I love retro dice. A year or so ago I backed the Kickstarter for a set of 80s D&D Adventures and character options and I finally got the dice that were the one physical item I backed. I absolutely love the design:

I especially love the cassette tape for the 20 spot on the d20. I’m now torn on my favorite retro dice. The VHS dice form 1985 games has the best case. I love the Miami-style dice as someone who grew up there, but these dice epitomize the color scheme of the early-to-mid 80s. Reminds me of the colors I would see on clothes and building decorations.

I just posted the following to my Github profile about AI usage in my programming projects. Sharing here to document my current thinking on the subject:

AI Usage

I know that opinions on AI usage are very divided at the moment. Some people I respect, like the hosts of Fallthrough and Mike Kennedy of Talk Python don’t see any issues with using it as part of the development process. (Although the Fallthrough hosts are against AI Slop, especially in communications ). Others won’t touch any repo that has included AI contributions.

Tim Pratt has done it again. They have taken a TTRPG setting and turned it into a fun adventure. This book has a similar framing device as the previous one - in the present Dae and Chk Chk are reading the journal of Tyrcell the Android which takes place about 20 years before. The past portions of the book take place about 3-4 years after the events of the first book. Things have calmed down a bit since the events of The Gap and The Society (what eventually becomes the Starfinder Society) has been formed. The main portion of that story has to do with an attack on Absalom Station by Eox, a planet of undead.

Our Game

How did things go?

Before heading to Archive 404, Jaedana wanted to go visit the temple of the deity she worships: Zon-Sheylin. The temple was painted in a rainbow color on the outside and experimental jazz was playing inside. A Pahtra accolyte, dressed as an anime character (with fake human ears on a head band) welcomed her in and invited her to do sacred coloring and then sacred paintball to center herself.

After a period of exploration that peaked while I was vacation with a lot of time on my hands, my usage of AI has more or less fallen back to where it was before my blitz of AI posts a couple weeks ago. This post is a summary of some interesting AI-related topics since my last post.

AI And Learning

In my 23 Aug post about Positive AI usage I mused on some ways that students might be able to use AI in a positive way instead of just having it be a complete negative. Since then I heard a Fresh Air episode about how tech giants influence American schools that mentioned Estonia making a deal with one of the AI companies to make it only answer socratically if a student was using it. Combining that with what I wrote in my blog post it was interesting to get this email from ChatGPT:

I’ve read a few GM guides (including for D&D and Tales of the Valient) and this one was the one that gelled most with the way my mind works. While it is strongly tied to Starfinder 2e, it has quite a few universal lessons to teach. Along with the others I’ve read, I think this is a good book to revisit now and again as I gain more experience.

Our Game

How did things go?

The Trio was contacted once again to do a job for the city. This time they had to go to Theology Channel for the parade of all the religions. Nitpick was given the task of setting up speakers, Vorza had to setup security bollards, and Jadeana had to do some of the organizing of the event. Vorza was suspicious and set up one of his bombs hidden in a jackfruit at a certain location. A little after the parade started, some mechanizers started shooting into the crowd and at the party. The group was unable to successfully disperse the crowd so they panicked and fled, trampling Jadaena during their escape. Eventually they were able to kill the attackers and, a short while later, anacite protectors arrived - having been sent to the wrong location. Investigations of the mechanizer comms paired with this information from the anacite protectors made the party much more suspicious.

This summary sounds a bit different than my usual summaries. The intro to last session explains why. I believe only 2 more will be written this way before we get back to my usual writeups. (although the audio is not returning)

The Story

Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 98 days

Summary

Session Recap: The Ashen Claw Heist

Party: Storm, Valerie, and Beatrice (with a scorpion friend along for the ride) — GM’d by Eric

This summary sounds a bit different than my usual summaries. The intro to last session explains why. I believe only 2 more will be written this way before we get back to my usual writeups. (although the audio is not returning)

The Story

Time elapsed so far in campaign at start of this adventure: 97 days

Summary

Session Recap: The Ghost Ship of Velder’s Rest

Party: Storm, Valery, and Beatrice (with a scorpion friend along for the ride) — GM’d by Eric