"Joseph, where the hell have you been?"

[iKarith]

Y'all might've noticed that last fall I sort of disappeared, leaving … well basically everything … undone. Might've left some of you asking that question, assuming you were one of the four people who actually know my name. (Seriously, it's not a secret or anything and never has been. That ship sailed for me in 1995.)

I had multiple medical stuffs at once. Some not so serious by itself, but combined … and some of it was pretty major on its own. I'm diabetic. I went from being able to control it via diet (strictly—I hated eating anything while on it, but I kept my diet) to … I need an implanted glucose sensor with alarms and many daily injections. How much is variable and the injections are partially guesswork so … carry fast sugar candy if I don't wanna die when I guess wrong(!) And that's one of the things.

Then I have been working on a class because … certifications help nerds get paid.

So now I'm back and drowning in unread messages and working on new downloads pages. It's the easiest low-hanging fruit and the part of the website that is the most different between translations. It's also the one we need to have updated to say, "Hi, yes, we know there's a 2021 edition and … no we can't post scans." It'll also be nice because you'll be able to see at a glance what we know exists, what we have, and what we have but can't put up for download.

It's not particularly hard, and it makes the rest of the job that much easier because when it's done the booklets and the like will be viewable in page order on tablets/laptops and the like. Making booklets is a lot easier than it used to be … but often people don't want to print the booklets at all. So I thought, yeah, let's make that easy.

It also opens the way to translations later on, which I think would be really cool.

[Kurgan]

FINALLY! All I can say is... welcome back.

[HispaZargon]

It is awesome seeing you again around here, iKarith!! Welcome back to the Inn!

[lestodante]

Glad to see the forces of chaos didn't catch you!

[StratosVX]

Welcome back man!

[iKarith]

Glad to see the forces of chaos didn't catch you!

Ohh, they caught me all right! (Kurgan's sitting there kind of nervously laughing how true that much is…) I've just proved to be more chaotic than they were. And more stubborn.

[Daedalus]

. . ..How much is variable and the injections are partially guesswork so … carry fast sugar candy if I don't wanna die when I guess wrong(!) And that's one of the things.

Does it work like taking a Heal Potion at zero Body Points (NA rules), or do you gotta down a Bar of Restoration before that happens (EU rules)?

. . . It's not particularly hard, and it makes the rest of the job that much easier because when it's done the booklets and the like will be viewable in page order on tablets/laptops and the like. Making booklets is a lot easier than it used to be … but often people don't want to print the booklets at all. So I thought, yeah, let's make that easy.

I love this! Can we do the same for cards? It would be awesome to have playing resources available. One day I'd love to have a Treasure Deck to "draw" from. Same goes for select homebrews like the Evil Wizard deck.

. . . It also opens the way to translations later on, which I think would be really cool.

So would drathe.

[iKarith]

. . ..How much is variable and the injections are partially guesswork so … carry fast sugar candy if I don't wanna die when I guess wrong(!) And that's one of the things.

Does it work like taking a Heal Potion at zero Body Points (NA rules), or do you gotta down a Bar of Restoration before that happens (EU rules)?

In between. My phone gives me an alert that I'm at 1BP and dropping fast. Haven't quite hit 0BP yet, but I will if I don't act, so in that way it functions like US rules. But I technically don't get to 0BP first, and I must immediately use my next action to consume a bar of restoration or a potion of orange juice.

. . . It's not particularly hard, and it makes the rest of the job that much easier because when it's done the booklets and the like will be viewable in page order on tablets/laptops and the like. Making booklets is a lot easier than it used to be … but often people don't want to print the booklets at all. So I thought, yeah, let's make that easy.

I love this! Can we do the same for cards? It would be awesome to have playing resources available. One day I'd love to have a Treasure Deck to "draw" from. Same goes for select homebrews like the Evil Wizard deck.

. . . It also opens the way to translations later on, which I think would be really cool.

So would drathe.

If you have a suggestion for how to do it with cards, sure. The way I'd do it with the PDFs is start by cutting the double-page files into single page and stitching them back together, then working to replace the map pages with vector files and the description pages with text in the correct fonts. Essentially, what Phoenix did with the rules (bug for bug accurate), but updated.

What I've ASKED HASBRO to allow me to do is to essentially put up similar with slightly more accessible graphics (more color variation) and text changes basically for HQ2021 explicitly for accessibility purposes. (In part because I wanted to do most of that already for the 30 year old version—but I left that out of my pitch to Hasbro corporate.)

Thing is, since I asked them to permit me to do something properly, legitimately, with permission … I basically can't do it unless they say yes. That's an integrity thing on my end. But it's important enough that I thought I should ask. Encarmine on Discord was open to improving accessibility of the 2021 version. I should've reminded him again about it in the past couple of weeks, but they're getting ready for GenCon so I'll wait until after. Ideally I'd have a proof of concept when I talk to him again, but I haven't had a chance to sort out what PDF-generating software to use to do it right, so I'll need some help with that.

[Daedalus]

Just playable access to the PDFs would be fine, though your upgrade pitch sounds better. I'd think playing with decks on a phone or tablet would be so useful for those who don't want to invest in physical cards from printing companies. Dream situation would be playing with card decks in a game forum here at the Inn, though at-home use is primary.

Anyway, that's way down the line. A leaner, sustainable Inn comes first, and that will keep you busy enough for now.

[iKarith]

I'm not looking to do a lesser version of the HQ mobile app, I just wanted eBooks of quest packs that were a little easier for me to read without bogging the game down while I take a magnifier to the quest book. A random deck program wouldn't be hard, but it'd be something separate to a more accessible PDF or ePub.

I've kinda got the guidance I need to know essentially what we can get away with and where I should draw the line. Not quite a formal "this is allowed, that isn't" set of terms, but I think I got the gist of it. Seems as long as no money is changing hands, Hasbro's got a fair bit of latitude to ignore or even kind of allow stuff that isn't strictly speaking "permitted by Copyright". (If they weren't, a lot of the homebrew and mods we do and have been doing for 30 years now would've already been a problem.) If something's for sale, the seller would probably be wise to make sure they're clear of legal hurdles because it matters a lot more.

Nobody seems to mind us sharing the old edition scans, translations, etc. And I doubt we'd ever hear a complaint for sharing the stuff they've literally put up for download themselves. They don't even appear to have objected yet to leaks like the DQP/WQP … No idea if that's because they're doing those anew or because they don't see that as in any way impeding them from producing retail versions of those things.

All of that suggests to me that I should be fine to create a high-contrast screen-friendly version of retail and downloadable quests. Which is cool, because I think other people would appreciate having it if I make it.

(I do have higher priorities just now.)