Honestly

Why is it that we encourage so much dishonesty in our society? We hypocritically spout that honesty is always the best course of action, but we turn around and punish honesty – and reward dishonesty.

Let’s take the familiar story of the child breaking a vase. If the child admits to breaking the vase, they are most likely going to get into trouble. If the child lies about breaking the vase, and get found out, they are most likely going to get into trouble. So, the best solution available is to learn to lie really well to stay out of trouble, because, from the child’s perspective, that is the only possible way of avoiding getting in trouble.

But it’s not as simple as just truths and lies. We then get trained to hide things about ourselves that we think others will judge us for. This behaviour is encouraged by the teasing that occurs when we reveal our interests. You like what team? You play what game? You like what? So we learn to hide and be dishonest about what we like – and maybe even join in with teasing others for what they like.

Going in even deeper, we discover that being honest in any social situation is, in fact, rude. Are you ready to go home before the party is over? Wait until you have an appropriate opening. Did you hate the food you were fed? It would be rude to tell the person who made it, so lie. Did something upset or hurt you? Hide it. How are you feeling? It doesn’t matter; be cheerful and happy.

Everywhere you turn, you’re expected to lie. Unless everything in your life fits into a specific box, you have to lie. But, don’t do that! Be honest. Honesty is the best way.

Why do we do this? Why do we train people to be dishonest about everything, yet expect them to be honest? Most of us don’t have that much to hide, at least not that’s actually worth hiding. Sure, it would be a dramatic shift, but wouldn’t it be nice to see a world where honesty is actually valued?

The biggest concern with a world like that is that people would constantly be getting offended by the truth – as if the whole world is going around secretly hating everyone they interact with. There may be an element of truth in that, but if there is, I think it’s inherent in this society built on dishonesty. We put so much faith in this judging of others that our entire outlook on the world is inherently negative. And, can we trust it when other people say they like us? Of course not, because if we didn’t like someone, we wouldn’t tell them to their face.

If we were to strip away the dishonesty, and really practice what we preach, there would likely be a massive shift in our entire world views. Our outlooks could turn from inherently negative to inherently positive.

It would take a lot of work over several generations, but if we taught acceptance and encouragement rather than teasing, and if we taught honesty – both delivering it and expecting it – we could, perhaps, finally practice what we preach.

Honesty is the best policy. Honestly.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 35

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


14th of Waxing Fall, 0AL

Having just saved a couple of lizardfolk from a band of small lizard-creatures known as kobolds, the 3rd Watch begin bargaining to be let into the swamp - apparently outsiders aren't allowed, and there is a war going on between multiple factions. However, in the middle of this conversation, they are interrupted by the surprising arrival of two more of their companions.

The gnome ranger, Dugg, had been tracking his friends for days after finding a note left for him by Fiaeorri. Riding upon his trust badger Laverne, he caught up with T'Zaric - who had been following the party at a distance - just in time to witness the end of the battle. T'Zaric promptly asked him to to accompany him to the rest of the group in a friendly manner, and to lend him some support if it was needed. Dugg, uncertain of the reason for this strange request, said that he would do whatever he believes is right.

So the two arrive, to the particular shock and dismay of Stor and Extang. After a brief conversation, in which T'Zaric says he wants to come along and help the group, Extang determines he needs more time to process his feelings, and Stor insists that, unlike some people, he doesn't murder people for revenge. It's an uneasy peace, but T'Zaric is permitted to rejoin them.

The lizardfolk hesitantly agree to take them to their village, where their shaman will determine if they are worthy to help with a problem they've been having in return for allowing them in their lands to find Stor's mother.

They journey into the treacherous lands of the swamp, grateful for their guides who seem to know all the safe paths. They periodically have to stop and wait in silence while a patrol of kobolds or strange frog-people go by.

After about two hours - during which Fiaeorri catches Dugg up to speed on the events of the last few days and Extang tries to understand why T'Zaric murdered Balasar - they arrive in a hut village filled with suspicious lizardfolk and are led to a particular building that hoses the shaman. After explaining the situation, the shaman declares that she will commune with Pagslas to see if these strangers are worthy. Fiaeorri, excited to find another worshiper of Pagslas, asks if she can help, and awkwardly joins in a strange dance around the fire.

The shaman declares the 3rd Watch to be worthy, and tells them that an important religious idol of the village has been stolen - a statue of a fly. It was taken from them by the kobolds they are at war with, and they have been unable to retrieve it. She also tells them that the recently collapsed temple they described as the location Stor's mother was is in kobold territory - it was collapsed by a trap set for the kobolds, and the area is currently swarming with the creatures. However, there is a way in from beneath, through a trap-door in a cursed room of peace - but they have to get past the guardian. Both the room, and the place where the kobolds are believed to be holding the idol are in a network of tunnels that are being fought over by the various factions.

The 3rd watch head down into the tunnels, magically lighting their way. They identify them as being an old sewer system, built with large, white stone blocks. The lizardfolk in the area aren't particularly helpful - tending to pointedly ignore them - but they do learn which general directions lead to the kobold and bullywug territories, and a rough direction that leads towards the 'cursed' room - apparently all directions can eventually lead them to the room.

They head into the tunnels, going towards the kobold territory. As they approach the first intersection beyond where the lizardfolk patrol, Fiaeorri spots a trap on the floor. They skirt around it, taking one of the narrower tunnels, but as they arrive at the next intersection they're spotted by some kobolds. The 3rd Watch charge into battle, quickly taking down the front lines, but there are more kobolds rushing in and these ones are tougher. Then T'Zaric drops a fireball down the tunnel, and the blast does more than kill a few kobolds - it collapses the entire tunnel in front of them!

With the battle over, they retreat from what remains of that tunnel and continue on their way - with Extang falling into one trap, and Fiaeorri spotting another - until the path forward is blocked by rubble. They turn to one side, heading down a tunnel that seems slimier than the others. This one is also blocked, but there are two tunnels carved through the stone walls and into the dirt on either side. From the left, they hear voices speaking an unfamiliar language and footsteps coming closer. They retreat into the tunnel on the right to hide, and find that after a turn it comes to a dead end with slime containing what Dugg believes to be some type of egg.

They douse their lights so they can hide and wait for the footsteps to pass. Those who can see in the dark can make out the shapes of a pare of fish people marching along - then Logan shifts, causing his armor to clank, drawing the attention of the fish people - who charge in. Stor meets their charge and quickly dispatches both of them. Searching their bodies, Fiaeorri finds some odd coins in the shape of gears with a staff on one side, a blank book on the other, and a hole in the middle.

They head down the other rough tunnel, but come to a main thoroughfare of these fishy folk. After a failed attempt to impersonate one with magic, the 3rd Watch retreats to the main tunnel and head back the other way. After another intersection - trapped to the left, collapsed to the right, though with another carved tunnel to one side - they find something strange up ahead. While the tunnel is blocked by rubble, there is a doorway to the left - which seems very odd in a sewer system. There is a brass door with a stone sign on it that forbids entry in several languages - based on the construction and anvils carved on it, Stor guesses the sign is from the Drovinaar Empire they heard about before.

They go through into a bright room of incredibly different design - the walls have more brickwork, as well as copper, brass, and glass decorations. The room is filled with tables populated by lizardfolk, fish-people, kobolds, and frog-people - all intermingling, in spite of whatever differences they may have. They look up when the adventurers come in, but then return to their drinks.

On the far side of the room is a bar manned by some metallic being. On the wall to there right is a strange metal box with a flat panel inset with a number of semi-precious stones, as well as a picture of a gold gear-like coin with an arrow pointing to a slot. Rising out of the back is a glass panel with a sheet of parchment behind it, and up above is a sign reading, "Win 10,000 Gold Pieces!"

Without a second thought, Fiaeorri drops a coin in the slot and promptly vanishes, with the 10,000 on the sign above becoming 10,001.

A cheer goes up from all the creatures at the tables as, on the parchment behind the glass, an ink drawing of what something recognizable as Fiaeorri scribbles into existence. At prompting from the patrons, the metal man behind the bar pulls a lever, and a larger version of the screen lowers to cover one of the walls as four odd, monster-like creatures are added to the drawing.

Logan perches on a table to watch, while T'Zaric and Dugg go and order drinks from the bar - then Dugg places a two-gold bet on Fiaeorri. Stor also approaches the bar for a drink and to ask some questions about the machine, but only learns that no one has ever run and the actual rules of the game have been lost to time. He also learns that there is a trapdoor behind the bar that is for employees only, and he believes that is the direction he needs to go to save his mother.

Back at the machine, Extang puts another gold coin in, and sees "Select your option" written on the screen. He starts by rolling a pearl that's in a bowl-like depression (Fiaeorri, who has found herself in a strange room with a pile of skeletons - one of which has a fancy-looking red cloak - and being attacked by four metallic creatures, suddenly feels a tug in her mind trying to convince her to move in a certain direction), seemingly with no effect - but the writing is still on the parchment, so he presses the green jade button - and vanishes!

Seeing this, Stor and T'Zaric rush over to the device, now seeing the moving drawings of two of their friends, battling creatures. They begin inserting coins and pressing buttons. The marbled black onyx button adds another monster to the fight, though its texture changed as it did so. The red-orange topaz button causes brilliant, artistic fireworks to burst across the parchment (Fiaeorri, Extang, and the monsters inside are all blinded for a few seconds), and the yellow quartz allows T'Zaric to use the pearl to select one of his friends, allowing him to heal some of Fiaeorri's wounds - but then the quartz turns purple.

The battle is completed, just as Stor adds another coin. They see the drawing-Fiaeorri take something from one of the skeletons in the room, then she and Extang leave through the one door in the room. They appear in another room with two doors - on labelled "Continue" and the other "Exit". Since he's already put in a coin, Stor hits the only button he and T'Zaric haven't pressed yet - the green jade - and joins the others in the strange room (where there are no labels on the two doors they see).

T'Zaric rolls the pearl in the direction of the door labeled "Exit". All three of the adventurers in the game follow the nudge they feel and go through the door, reappearing beside the machine to disappointing groans from the spectators. Fiaeorri is sporting a fine new cloak she found inside, but after that strange experience she really needs a drink, so she heads over to the bar.

The group reconvenes, discussing this fascinating game and the possibility of winning the now 10,006 gold by playing it. Bardroy, the machine tending the bar, tells them that he's seen at least seven rooms in the game, though there may have been people who got farther that he didn't see. They consider playing the game again, but they must also weigh that decision against the missions they are on.


And that's where the game session came to an end. Come back next week to find out what the adventurers do in Episode 36!

Constructing Family Trees

You know what’s a crazy project to work on? Fictional family trees. It’s extremely time-consuming, but also fascinating and educational. In many ways, it changes how you think about generations and time.

Take the tree I’m working on right now, for example. It’s for a character who is the 9^th individual in their line of succession – although they are only the 7^th of their name. So, I figured I needed at least 9 generations, and that it would be somewhere in the range of 400-500 year time-span. Boy was I wrong.

After building out the main family line – oh, and by the way, family trees just keep getting bigger and bigger as they branch off! – I started putting in the years, and tracking the line of succession, and I ran into a massive snag. If a parent lived a long and full life, their child wouldn’t be ruling until they were seniors! Not only that, but there was the potential that the seat of leadership could pass over an entire generation. On the flip-side, a shorter-lived ruler with no heir could result in their sibling inheriting – meaning that two people in the same generation could hold power, meaning that – unless I rebuilt the family tree – I had to steal that position from a whole other generation.

Well, I eventually sorted the whole mess out, balancing the leadership and generations, and was amazed to find that my 9 generations all fit snugly in a blanket of 200 years. Only 200! Through this, I learned that generations squeeze far closer together than I had ever anticipated – if only because I didn’t sit down to do the math ahead of time.

And remember how I said the family tree just grows and grows? I was erring on the side of keeping family sizes small, even going so far as to end entire branches. Yet, over the span of 200 years, a family that started with one couple grew to have 63 individuals in it (including spouses)!

So, naturally, now I’m off to finish naming 63 people, and giving them all birth and death dates. And all I can say is, thank goodness for noble households who like to pass on names through the family.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 34

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


9th-14th of Waxing Fall, 0AL

It is only the morning after T'Zaric murdered Balasar and fled into the jungle, but the 3rd Watch have no time to rest. Stor's father, Varis, whom the entire group had experienced Balasar murdering in his memories, showed up at the door - half disguised as a friend of Extang's, with a broken arm, and looking about ready to pass out from exhaustion, but very much alive.

Varis informs Stor that his adoptive mother is in danger and needs his help. The two of them had gone out seeking treasure troves, and had found what looked to be a ruined temple in a swamp filled with lizard-creatures. Upon entering, the building had collapsed, separating the two. Varis had seen Stor's mother alive through the rubble, but his arm got broken during the the fruitless attempts to dig through. Knowing Stor could probably help, he'd rushed home, not even bothering to sleep.

The remaining members of the 3rd Watch, Extang and Fiaeorri, agree to help, but they believe they need a little more help. While Varis goes off to have his injuries tended to, Stor and Fiaeorri ask around for someone to help, and recruit Logan - a paladin of Epesta. Extang, meanwhile, obtains Naldor's last healing potion.

Before setting out, Fiaeorri takes a trip out to the edge of the jungle to leave a note for Dugg, hoping he can catch up with them. While there, she bumps into T'Zaric! She's happy to see him, and invites him on their adventure, but after talking about it they agree that the others probably aren't ready to forgive him for killing Balasar. So, they decide he should follow them from a distance instead.

With that, the 3rd Watch sets out, with T'Zaric sneakily following behind and Fiaeorri helping to keep attention away from him. They travel quickly, as Stor knows the first part of the route, which takes them past the white stone building where they have a couple of goblin friends. Of course, that may be another problem, because apparently there are harpies nesting on top of the building, and Stor is worried about his friends.

On their third day out, they come to the familiar field of long blue grass, though now it is smaller due to the people from the settlement harvesting it. They continue on, and as they draw near the white stone building, they note that there are indeed a large number of harpies around it. Stor convinces the others that they can't just leave the goblins there, but no one really wants to fight these creatures, so Fiaeorri is sent to sneak ahead and check on the goblins.

She makes it pretty far, but as she rounds the corner, she finds a harpy on the ground outside the door, who looks up at her and shrieks. Stor and Logan rush around the corner to help Fiaeorri, and that harpy is quickly killed - but the others have been alerted, and they swarm in to attack. Extang, lagging behind the others, catches a brief glimpse of a harpy diving at something back in the tall grass before he's set upon by two more harpies. Not wanting to stay separated from his friends, he vanishes with a spell to appear by their side.

The battle is rough, and full of strange occurrences. Shortly after one of the harpies begins singing - briefly charming Stor - there is a massive explosion from back around the corner from where they came. Once the battle is complete, they are certain there were more dead harpies than they killed, and one side of the building is blackened and charred. Extang looks into this - though Fiaeorri claims the explosion came from a trap she set - but he doesn't find anything other than some specks of blood where he's pretty sure none of his friends were fighting.

Stor finds the doors to the building held shut from the inside, but after he announces that it's him, the goblins Ilk and B'yeta throw open the doors and fling themselves on him, each accusing the other of threatening to eat them if the harpies stayed much longer. Of course, a horrible stench comes out with the goblins. Stor chastises them for not keeping the place clean, but the goblins insist that the smell is coming from the secret room where the 3rd Watch had locked up half a dead lion weeks ago.

Extang is fetched to open the door, and they clean up the mess - then Extang locks Balasar's magical greatsword in the room, figuring it was the safest place for it until a worthy wielder was found. They stayed there for the night, then continued on to the east in the morning.

After passing Grubfrub's old goblin camp, they come to a wide river, rushing down fresh from the mountains. With the aid of various magical items, they cross without much difficulty, and continue on across the savanna beyond. By the time they make camp, the mountains to the south have disappeared and there are trees on the eastern horizon - not jungle trees, either - but the droopy sort of trees they would expect to find in a swamp.

In the morning, they press on. About halfway through the morning, they spot a humanoid-sized shape on the edge of the swamp, being mobbed by a bunch of smaller creatures. Thinking it may be Stor's mother, they rush in to help, only to find that it is in fact a battle between six human-sized lizard-people and a much larger group a smaller lizard-creatures. Stor and Extang decide that they will help the larger creatures in the hopes that they can get on the good side of some of the locals. Fiaeorri and Logan come along, though both would have been content to sit and wait out the battle.

It's a tough fight, if only due to the sheer numbers of the smaller creatures - some of whom have magic. However, eventually they come out victorious, with two of the lizard-people still surviving. Said lizard-people take a step back, brandishing their spears defensively and glancing from each other to the four members of the 3rd Watch. One of them quietly begins hissing.


And that's where this game session ends. Discover what happens next week in Episode 35.

Digital Plagues

            May years ago, there was a plague released into the game of World of Warcraft as part of an event. It wasn’t supposed to last very long, but there was a flaw in the code that allowed characters’ pets to carry it out of the region it was supposed to be contained to – and to spread it to others. Before long, there was an epidemic – low level characters couldn’t withstand the disease, while higher level ones were practically immune. It was out of control before the developers could do anything about it.

            The community rallied into different groups – with most of them working to fight the plague. Stronger players helped the weak to safety. Then, of course, there were others working to actively spread the plague, for reasons of their own.

            When the Center for Disease Control heard about this, they were intrigued – because the various reactions of the people playing the game matched what happens during an outbreak. I don’t know the whole story, but I believe they were able to make great use of the data gathered in the game during that time.

            It’s interesting to reflect back on that, though I have – shockingly – never played WoW, as I’m currently helping fight a somewhat more intentional virtual plague that was released upon the community of the Chronicles of Elyria. We’re seeing the same sort of things happening – some people fighting for the plague, while the majority are fighting against it. In the middle, there are some people who just want a shot at the free copy of the game they can possibly earn through participating in this event.

            While some people find the comparisons surprising, I’ve come to expect it. Whenever you get enough people in one place, they form a microcosm, reflecting reality in almost every way. What people forget is that people are people, and if you hand people a situation, you’ll always find someone in the group whose opinion differs from the others.

            Massively multiplayer games have been around for a long time, and they’re very popular within certain circles. I know human experimentation is wrong, but really... look at how perfect these test groups are for exploring how people react in different circumstances. It’s a perfect medium for delving deeper into the human psyche...

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Stepping Up

            An interesting reoccurring occurrence in my life is that, while I very strongly dislike being in a position of leadership, I frequently seem to find myself filling a leadership role. Be it for work or play, it seems like I always end up as one of the people making the decisions – a very unfortunate job for a chronic fence-sitter.

            My most recent of such experiences took place over this weekend, but to understand just how often this has happened, we really need to go back quite a ways. I don’t know precisely when it started, but the first I can think of chronologically was in my highschool choir. In grade 9, there was a decent sized selection of male singers, but most of them were in their last year – including the one that informally led them simply by being such a strong singer. The following year, there were only 4 males in the 30-or-so person choir, and I happened to be the one who stepped into the empty leadership role – though I was thankfully replaced for part of the year when teachers were invited to join. However, the mantle fell back to me the next year, and eventually led to me being in the smaller jazz choir and even performing one song where I was the only person on the melody and everyone else was basically a back-up-singer.

            Also in my highschool years, I joined Amtgard, a Live Action Roleplaying Game. Three months in, I ran in the election for the role of the records-keeper and treasurer because at the time the records weren’t being kept up to date, and I held that role – which also assisted in other aspects of running the group – for three years straight (six terms), and then took six months in the primary leadership role.

After highschool, when I got a job, it quickly became known that if someone needed extra help, or called in sick, I could always be relied upon to come in – to the point where I had to arrange to be the last person called, because it was known that if everyone else said no, I could be relied upon to say yes because, well, someone had to step up and do it. I became one of the primary trainers for new employees, and ended up holding titles like crew leader and shift manager even though I had no interest in them.

            Then I started my own business. If I have to elaborate on that, you should do some research into what running a business entails.

            Over the course of July, I joined a community of people awaiting the release of a game called Chronicles of Elyria. I joined a Kingdom, then a Duchy, then a specific County, and I began working with the Count on helping with organization and lore writing for both the County and Duchy, making it clear all along that I had no interest in a leadership role. Then my Count went ahead and named me Chancellor of our county which essentially means I can speak for him when he’s not around to do so, both in the County and the Duchy.

            Then, this past weekend, an event launched for the Elyria community which involves a mini-game that will be running for the rest of the summer that allows people to control some of the lore for the world and – remarkably – affords people (like me) who haven’t already bought into the game to earn a free copy of the game for when it releases. From the moment the game was released, it was clear a great deal of teamwork and organization would be required, and my Kingdom quickly got to work on that. However, I soon noticed that everyone doing the organizing had a game package – and since the game works differently for those without game packages, I stepped up to share my knowledge and help out. The next day, some people in my Duchy were talking about Duchy-specific organization and, well, no one else was stepping up to the plate, so I did so and laid out the groundwork.

            And then it occurred to me that, once again, I was falling into leadership roles. So, I started looking back at my history, wondering what the cause was for this. Why was it that someone like me, who would much rather sit back and silently watch, who has a very hard time making decisions, and who really dislikes being a leader – why did I keep becoming a leader?

            The answer, it turns out, is remarkably simple. No one else was doing it, and so I stepped up to the task. Because someone had to do it. In each and every case, something needed to be done, and I did it because no one else was.

            And I realized that a leader is exactly that. Someone who steps up and takes the reins when no one else does. It isn’t something that makes me happier about being doomed to leadership, but it at least makes me more accepting of my fate.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.