I learned that the lump I'd had biopsied on my neck was a pair of thyroid tumors that were suspicious for cancer, and that the whole organ would need to be removed. After pathology, it turned out not to be malignant, which is lucky, but that was a pretty unpleasant few months and now I have to take thyroid replacement hormones for the rest of my life. The doc still hasn't got my dose quite right, so I just kind of low-key feel like shit all the time. It takes a couple months before we know if a new dosage is working better or worse. Hopefully they'll have it figured out by my next birthday...

I like "we'll burn that bridge when we come to it"

Player: "I do something to Eric's character against his will."

A good DM: "No, you don't."

End of discussion.

Come on, this isn't real. Sound out that name 'Mike Oxmall'. Even Moe Sizlak might not fall for this one.

I went to my boss to ask for some time off and she reminded me that I had already requested the same days off weeks ago, been approved, talked about plans, then forgotten all of it.

Has nobody ever talked dirty to you? Words can be very powerful, even recorded ones.

Speech bubble in panel one appears to be pointing at the wrong character.

If you liked this game, you might be interested to learn that Pistol Shrimp games, an independent game dev company started by Paul Rieche III and Fred Ford (the original creators of Star Control and Star Control 2), are making a sequel, with story written by Paul Rieche III.

The re-release on steam is partly to get the word out about it. Join our discord to learn more!

Classic PC game Star Control II did this joke in the year of our lord nineteen hundred and ninety-two. There was an entire alien species whose culture was just capitalism taken to its furthest extremes. If you scan their home planet it's a 'dust world', the same planet type as Mars. Through conversation, you learn that it used to be a water world like Earth. Fantastic game. Getting a true sequel now, too!

I think I may be an outlier here. I really don't want to die in a sudden 'didn't-see-it-coming' kind of way, like getting hit by a semi or a freak accident with heavy machinery kind of way. The idea of going from living, thinking, feeling, person to chunk(s) of meat in an instant terrifies the shit out of me. Especially if it's caught on video and people watch it for laughs or whatever possesses them to watch that kind of thing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to die in some slow, painful way either, but something I had some agency in would be worlds better. Like taking a bullet to save a loved one, or punching my own ticket after getting a terminal diagnosis, or even just taking a deliberate, calculated risk.

Two approaches. Mixed success with both.

1. Choose games that don't make you feel bad. This can mean playing more cooperative games, or it can mean offering to referee or sit out games you know will just piss you off. For me, the chance of winning isn't appealing enough to outweigh the chance of ruining the game for someone else. It helps to identify what exactly it is about losing that makes you so sour. I have a hard time with games like Cards Against Humanity because the card combinations that are funny to me usually aren't funny to anyone else because they didn't go on the ADHD field trip with me to make those connections. It starts to feel like a popularity contest that I'm losing because my brain is wired wrong, and it's hard not to take that personally.

2. Set different goals in the games you're playing, and define 'winning' for yourself based on those goals. I used to get annoyed every time my friends pulled out settlers of Catan. I would do what made sense to me each turn, but I'd always lose anyway either to random chance or just not having enough RAM in my brain. Even on the rare occasions I won I often wouldn't have fun with it because I spent so much of the game being frustrated. So I decided the only thing I cared about in the game was getting one of the bonus goals, usually 'longest road'. That was much easier to focus on, and it took all the pressure off me to win. After a while it became kind of a running joke.

It's not perfect, and it doesn't happen in a vacuum either. Sore losers often have anger issues they're not dealing with (I know I did!) and figuring that stuff out will help in more areas of your life than just board games.

Your mileage may vary.

Good luck!

Absolutely not. Discomfort isn't a thing to be avoided, and contentment too easily becomes complacency. Everything I've ever done that materially improved my life was motivated by not being content with the status quo. Each positive change was (physically or emotionally) difficult, unpleasant, or even painful to make, but it always made life better afterward. Pain is a fantastic teacher. I would rather struggle than sleep, and I don't want rich assholes doing my thinking for me.