Michael Segal
Whisky drinker, LARP enthusiast, gamer, collector of strange and wonderful books & epilepsy sufferer.
- So, E4 completed. Farewell Dadford, hello Steeple Chase. Bourse position won for the 3rd year in a row. 6 months of the long dark to go, miss everyone already. In other news, off to Japan soon for nearly a month. Busy learning odd phrases that I hope will get us through without embarrassing us.
- E3 done. 1 more until the move to Cambridge. At the moment my legs are on strike and my neck won’t move properly thanks to sleeping on the ground. Record attendance- over 4,500 people and I am expecting more at the final event.
- …and then I had a partial stroke. 2025 is just turning out great. Oh well, a few weeks until E3. Unless I come down with bubonic plague or something similar. Anyway, 2 more events and then we are Cambridge bound next year. #Stroke #E3 #ProfoundDecisions
- Oh look - I have pneumonia. Lucky me. Verdict is in: it bloody sucks - if my blood oxygen level drops from 91% (current level) to 90% then it will be hospital time. Do not pass ‘go’ or collect £200. #pneumonia
- Oh and the topic for E2 is ‘how to kidnap an orc without leaving any evidence’. Purely on a theoretical basis, of course. #ProfoundDecisions #E2 #Empire
- Less than two weeks to go to #E1 and I am waiting on my latest vyshyvanka to be delivered. Most other things have been packed and a lift procured to get me on site when the gates open. The WoF have opened up a new RP opportunity as well. Keen at maximum level… #Empire #ProfoundDecisions
- IC tent hired (Rent Bell Tents), positioned on the Varushkan plan (if the area gets any smaller we will be living in the same tent). Just waiting for weather predictions now. #ProfoundDecisions #Empire #E1 #Varushka
- Started running - 3 days later shin-splint again. Need to find a running route through one of nearby woods, just running on concrete paths since it is very convenient and doesn’t involve me being taken half a mile to start. #NoRunningAtEmpire #FirstWorldIssues
- Just been thinking… should we be preparing to meet the returning spirits of the Iron Helms at the Feast of the Loom? Last time a thing like this happened people got slightly murdered… #ProfoundDecisions #Empire #E1 #Varushka #FeastOfTheLoom
- Must.Stop.Buying.More.LARP.Kit *goes off to order more fur*
- And so it begins… Soft kit being assembled for E1 with a few Long Dark additions. Base layers as well as Varushkan kit. Warm items to be packed if the forecast is wet or rainy (or both). Boots at the ready. 3 weeks to go… #ProfoundDecisions #Empire #E1 #Varushka
- My wife is in bed with flu. I phoned up some of her friends to let them know. My conversation went like this: “Hi, Caroline can’t make it tonight she gone down with… (brain said flu, my mouth said)…Leprosy”
- My daughters cat (she is staying with us whilst her flat is being refurbished) has bitten and scratched my leg now on 5 occasions. Each bite had got deeper and deeper and we were considering last night going to A&E. He hates me and the feeling is mutual.
- I’ve just done my ‘I have epilepsy post’ on the #Empire ‘Spoonie and disabled Empire Larpers’ Facebook group. Fingers crossed I have had only 2 seizures in 11 years at Empire but they are are getting more frequent. #LARP #Empire #ProfoundDecisions
- I need to stop telling people that my Imperial title is “the butcher of Tolvoli” which open to misinformation. I am the Tolvoli Butcher, (ok probably the same issue as above). I won with 0 votes despite opposition. Campaigning does work! www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/... #Empire #LARP
- Gym day 1: got flu, in bed. Is this a divine sign? Is this an unwritten 11th commandment which specifically stops me doing any form of exercise? I am giving it a week for me to recover and then try again. Signed, Deeply Suspicious
- In an effort to make the return journey from Varushka to Wintermark in less than 2 days, I have joined a gym to try and raise my cardio fitness. Yes I know it is only 6 weeks to go and I am likely to be a total exhausted wreck but it is the thought that counts. I think.
- Where is the toast then?
- In other news, Berkshire Blue cheese, sourdough crackers and honey makes the day worthwhile.
- Well going up into the loft and then cracking your skull and potentially your plate (MRI in 2 weeks) by standing up under a cross beam is a great way of spending a month away. Migraines and feeling nauseous every time I move my head is just fine and dandy 😳
- Note: having a seizure whilst in the shower is not very clever. Between smacking my head on the wall and water-boarding myself under the shower head it doesn’t have any plus sides. Note 2: locking the bathroom door, even though you’ve been told multiple times this might happen, is stupid.
- In the middle of a disaster area now (that maybe some hyperbole). Floors removed, utility room still not built, electrician seems to have gone on strike, laptop fell between two large boxes of stuff, screen open and now smashed. Still, Dark Urge run destroying everything is therapeutic. #BG3
- All my LARP stuff now placed into my own small room in the loft. Clothes on rails, armour on stands, weapons neatly stacked by type and miscellaneous equipment stored in boxes. Really pleased with the result 😀 Ready for Empire! #Empire #LARP #ProfoundDecisions
- Hoping that my custom made lamellar is returned. It gives me bruises all over my body when I wear it (especially with chain mail underneath) but it looks so good.
- Busy building a BG3 alt with the highest AC possible. Currently on AC35 which makes me invulnerable to 99% of all opponents and I am now multi-classed into 5 different classes Now all I have figure what to do when they use magic. Power Word Kill is proving tricky…
- Bored, so another LARP photo: Varushkan Boar's Head on the march. I seem to be at the front (with the spider shield), as a sacrificial victim. 10 minutes later, i was. #LARP #Empire #ProfoundDecisions
- First run of Baldur’s Gate 3 solo complete. And by complete I mean ‘fuck that, I’m giving up after Act 1 having respecced my character more than a dozen times’. Long range Ranger/Rogue combination got me the furthest but I need to have a complete rethink about how I can approach it in future.
- Just finished playing Oxenfree (again!). Next it will be Oxenfree 2 which, to my shame, I haven’t started yet as I been tempted from one new release to another. I needed reminding how good a game Oxenfree is, and why it is in my top ten games ever.
- Problem is that he has about £700 of my equipment including armour, shields, staves and various bits & pieces. I’m getting seriously stressed as the 1st event approaches and I have next to no equipment and he has blocked me on all social media etc. The alternative is to start buying it all again 😫
- My main Empire group has kicked out a member for violent behaviour at a get together between events. Problem is that I travel to the event using a hired bus which has little room for carrying equipment other than what fits in 2 rucksacks, so he brought down equipment for me that I needed… /1
- Just started Nier: Automata for about the 6th time in an attempt to finish some of the games that I haven’t played in at least 2 years, (whilst mainlining BG3). Next on the list is finishing Bloodborne, restarting No Man’s Sky and progressing Red Dead Redemption 2, before buying any more games.
- Things have really moved on since I had my meningioma removed in 2008. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
- Latest BG3 status: Gondians: Save us please and we will give you… Me: *looks lovingly at a runepowder bomb* No thanks, oh and the Ironhands send their regards. *Very, very, very big bang*
- A waste of studio time. I make it a least 10 live services games that have been cancelled over the past 12 months. All I want is a decent single person game that will hold my interest. Live services games inevitably produce a toxic player interaction sooner or later.
- I now have spent several days in our bedroom as the house is full of builders, plasterers, insulators, loft floor fitters, fitted wardrobe people, electricians, garden drainage fitters & kitchen measures. I feel dreadfully out-numbered, we should have had a holiday and let them get on with it.
- I think I’m addicted to Baldur’s Gate 3. Didn’t play it last night and then spent several hours thinking about a) multi-classing my ranger and b) next time not letting Lae’zel ‘seduce’ me after about 2 hours of playtime and then not killing her when she doesn’t appreciate my decisions.
- Sod it, Alchemy it is then (even though it is the Beta stage of its development). There is a starter version of CoC 7e which has been produced for Alchemy so I’ll see how that works.
- Call of Cthulhu 7e VTT. Fantasy Grounds supports the whole system natively, Alchemy also supports the whole system but focusses on the assets (better graphics, sound effects, music), Foundry has a limited system integration but is better intuitively to use. Decisions, decisions.
