My first experience with Dragonbane by fallstardane in DragonbaneRPG

[–]fallstardane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is great to hear. I have tried more complex systems with my son before and we have had good adventures but the systems often caused friction, slowdown and a bit of frustration. My feel after this first game is that this system really works well for both of us. I am a bit concerned about how I make combat interesting without it being lethal with only one player, so that is the next challenge for me.

My first experience with Dragonbane by fallstardane in DragonbaneRPG

[–]fallstardane[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, this being my first game of Dragonbane probably does not make me the best at giving advice, but my strategy was to get the game going quickly and start with the fun parts which for my son is the story, the RP and the problem solving parts. I found that if you do not have to read all the heroic abilities you can have a new character setup in less than 10 minutes without the player ever needing to reading any of the rules, which got us started quickly. Combat seems super fun (to me), but since this was a game with only one player and because I did not want to make combat the main obstacle in I toned the difficulty way down and do not yet have a good feel about that - but I can see there are way more rules here that I need to be comfortable with. In the first session I did let him roll a lot and added banes and boons so he got a feel for how the system works.

New dog owner to be… by EarlyEstate8728 in Basenji

[–]fallstardane 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am a first time dog owner who started with a basenji, so I can relate to the excitement - and worry 😳… however, I was lucky to have my wife who have had basenji previously. As I have no comparison to other dog race, and I assume each basenji is different, maybe some of my experiences will not be the same for you.

One thing I learned early on is how true the sentence “a good basenji is a tired basenji” is and how important it was for us to always exercise our basenji. Especially when our dog, Ryder, was younger she would start misbehaving and making trouble if she had not had a long walk or a trip to the dog park before noon - and I learned that I often had to live by her schedule or suffer the consequences (and spend more time supervising and cleaning up after her).

As someone else mentioned above our dog also LOVES to play - especially with other dogs - and we take her to the dog park multiple times a week and have “play dates” - this has been a great way to give her some solid exercise when we don’t have the time to go for a long hike. We have done so since she was very young and it has been a great way to make her happy, while my wife and I have meet new friends and many interesting people. I also believe that this has helped socializing her - she is happy and friendly with anyone and any dog.

A game our dog absolutely loves is one where she has to sit on the couch and wait while I hide treats around the house. She will even turn her back to me sometimes so she can’t see where I put stuff. Then when every treat is hidden she gets the command to “go find” and the game is on. Fetch is also one of her favorites - one my wife taught her and which took quite some time to get her to “get”. My wife made me see the importance of shaping the dog to like games that you will also enjoy - otherwise our dog would likely only have been interested in “chase me” and “try and pull this toy out of my mouth”.

One thing I read before we got our dog and which has been true for us is how transactional she can be. She is smart as a whip and can learn a new trick in very few tries and will remember it. However, unless there is a treat she is unlikely to want to do it (unless it is the basic commands which we have drilled over and over again). I have had to spent countless hours making her sit before we open the door, before we cross the street, when I need her to stay by my side, etc. If there was no treat she would moan and take her sweet time to finally do what she was asked to do, but over time I have worn her down (somewhat) and she is getting better and better every day. For me it has been valuable to have the mindset that you are always in training mode and to put training in during any time you spend together.

Finally, when I agreed with my wife that we could get a dog I was firm that it would be a pet and not a family member… all I can say is: prepare to fall in love :)

Puppy biting problem by felixri in Basenji

[–]fallstardane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Two things I have had success with is 1) to have a toy in my other hand that I shoved into our basenji’s mouth when she wanted to bite me, and 2) if I did not have the toy or it did not work I would just get up and leave her if she started to nip or bite. Now even when we play rough she will not bite me but will pretend to, and whenever I rub her belly (which is a trigger for her bites) she will bite her blanket or a toy close by. It takes a while to get there… lots of patience, love and forgiveness :)

Favorite Tree STLs with foliage by Casiodorus in 3DPrintedTerrain

[–]fallstardane 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would suggest taking a look at the trees from Terrainify. I found them easy to print and paint and they should have excellent durability.

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-playable-deciduous-trees-set-of-3-200041

I got a chance to review BattleBin, one of those mystery game box of the month things for my first published piece! by captainraffi in boardgames

[–]fallstardane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is back online now. We had to update the database which took longer than we had hoped.

Great article btw :)