Dresden Files, Part 2: Characters

Our story continues.

So, with the city partially designed (and NPCs will get their own post), we moved on to character creation. Most of the players had some idea of what they wanted to do before they got there, but not all. We went around the table first and worked on coming up with high aspects -- the snapshot idea for their characters. Then we came up with their troubles (the thing that complicates their lives) and then moved on to dialing in a bit more to templates and the idea in general. We didn't look heavily at stats/powers at that point, though. We went ahead and instead ran through the phases, working out history and issues and how they all know one another. The actual stats we saved until the second night, but I'll include them here too.

Oh, and the power level is Chest Deep, which it occurs to me is important to say. ( Now for characters!  )

Adventures in Food

So, living with Matt and Heather has provided me with a remarkable amount of culinary input. Apparently so long as I'm not required to cook, I've got a decent eye for this stuff. :) When I go with him to the market, for example, we'll talk about foods and what goes together and buy it and then hit up the internet to find a recipe that's either applicable or something we can riff off of. Then he cooks it with a little help from me (apparently my preferred lot in life is "sous chef," aka "lackey"). New things have been tried, including an apple/pear/fennel salad with blue cheese (which was amazing), and breadcheese.

Breadcheese, in this instance, is not bread with cheese. It's an odd prebaked form of cheese that was a gift from Jason Blair as we went through his hometown on the way back from Seattle to Cleveland. Apparently it's of Finnish origins. The flavor is mild -- a bit sharper/saltier than mozzerella, but in that neighborhood. We looked it up and discovered that people often dip it in coffee and eat it that way. We also found a recipe for baking it, so we did both, naturally.

The cheese strips and the coffee were interesting. I think I'd have liked it better if the cheese was room temperature when we started... it got soft and took on a bit of coffee flavor, but the center would still be stiffer and cold. I couldn't finish my piece... it was rich and filling and very cheesy.

The second method was cutting the cheese into thin strips to go into a small baking dish, pouring heavy cream over it, and then topping it with cinnamon and sugar. You then bake it at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until it's bubbly. We added a bit of wild blackberry jam too... it was pretty darn awesome that way. I couldn't have much cream at risk of unpleasantness, but it was really, really tasty. I approve.