Never see anyone mention it so I’ll go with Hyperblade!

Futuristic combat skating game that was played in stadiums akin to the inside of a rugby/american football so you had high sides for doing tricks, goals at each end and hazards in the middle.

Hazards I hear you ask? Why yes! Spinning gates with blades on them to hurt your opponents and various other objects caused a small amount of bodily harm and bleeding. This led to a viable strategy of simply killing the opposing team.

Bonus points if you decapitated them too - literally. You could use opposing players heads to score more goals. Hilarious and probably not suitable for an early teens kid but I think I mostly turned out ok.

Huh, that was what 5 years ago now? I will remember telling randy he was wrong (in perhaps an alcohol fuelled rant 🤭) only to get swiftly blocked.

Brick voice ‘Ahhh good times!’

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. Could be a fun mini series to adapt. The video game never grabbed me though.

Not great. Perpetually exhausted (~4 years, onset), GP just gaslights me into thinking I’m fine.

My friends have all but abandoned me since the pandemic.

I have no job and due to the aforementioned fatigue struggle to find a route back to employment.

On the plus side my cat loves me. Probably something to doo with tuna.

Overall I think I win.

I thump my water bottle down on the desk just hard enough to make my mouse trigger and wake up the PC. By the time I’m sat comfortably it’s awaiting a password :]

Managed to see Limp Bizkit twice during the late 00’s/early 10’s when they shoved their way onto a festival lineup. Second best band of the weekend! Go if you can!

Hell yeah! Never thought I’d see this mentioned anywhere. I’d love a modern take on this.

Oddly pretty good the last few days! Been suffering from fatigue from an unknown source and for the last 5 days I’ve slept well, felt ‘normal’ and been able to get some things done!

Where they the right things? Not really but it’s the thought that counts, right?

That’s her on a good day. Always had goopy eyes sadly but the vet said she’s doing just fine.

Board game or DnD club! I’ve met so many cool people at these things and it’s a fun hobby to boot! :)

I do similar in the UK via Crisis. Its not much but a hot meal and somewhere to sleep/ cleanup is always a nice gesture to those in need I feel.

Dragon of Icespire Peak is a lot of fun. If you want some pure chaos give them the Gnomengarde Grenade 😂

My mum still plays this daily. Had done for years. So can’t get beyond level 6 though 🤣

Came out in 1998 a month or so before Half Life and came with a patch cd in the box 🤣

Interesting take on the fps genre with branching routes/alternate levels that change things in the story deepening on your success. It’s a bit janky now but still a decent game.

1. Half Life
2. Sim Copter
3. Carmageddon
4. Quarantine
5. Descent
6. SiN

So much magic wrapped up in these games. I’m aware of the sequels and what not but I’d love to go back to them completely fresh.

Honourable mention to Deus Ex and Need for Speed Porsche 2000 which missed the cut by months.

Kobolds are so much fun to play. That said mine died 2 sessions into the game first time around!

Unarmoured defense for barbarian is 10+CON+DEX though.

Should still be a lot of fun though!

I got introduced to XCWeather.co.uk about 10 years ago and swear by it even now. Only runs as a Web page but it’s lightweight, fast and seems to be fairly accurate plus decent customisation options.

https://www.xcweather.co.uk/

Solved networking issues and many more things this way, bless those tiny channels that no one uses!

Alcohol poisoning - drank too much the night before and can’t face the day. They’ll catch up later!

If you must have them with the party you could run them in a supportive role and simply buff the party where possible (bless, guidance) and keep them off the front lines.

If the players trust each other enough you could have one of them run the character in a similar way to lighten your load.

Beyond that others have suggested good ideas: shopping, a job from their holy order, helping someone in town are always classics.

You could perhaps have the guard arrest them for something and have a jail break as well 🤣