Brief Update

I will write a general update soon, and maybe include a few pictures. I've been playing a lot of Guild Wars with Danae and being anxious, but I've gotten some interesting things done and had some frustrations while trying to do them. For instance, I keep thinking there must be somewhere to buy a plunger that's closer than the Praxis 3 kilometers away, but if there is I don't know how to find it.

LARPing and Being Faceblind

Danae really loves doing one-shot LARPs. I'd like to do them with her; it's something important to her and I'd like to at least try sharing it with her. But it's a combination of things that make it terrifying. Mostly, it centers on being faceblind.

I like acting and improv, though it's been a long time since I did that, and improv was only in classes. But the fact that I just can't tell who anyone is is so scary. I've looked at event descriptions and character sheets and they sound like so much fun! I'd love to be a character I find interesting and explore that headspace. Interaction with other participants, though, frightens me. I need to react to other people based on what I know of their goals and motives and my interactions with them, but because I can't remember people by face, and there are too many of them for me to reliably do it by clothing or distinguishing features, I'm terrified of feeling the whole time like I'm stuck with a bunch of people who expect me to know them and I don't. That is, like every other social event I go to with more than a handful of people who I don't already know well.

This is why I love Coup, but hate Werewolf and similar parlor games. Coup is a bluffing card game that involves picking roles and calling out people bluffing to be a role they aren't. Lots of people say it's very much like Werewolf. I've never played Werewolf and don't want to because the idea of trying to remember what people said to each other and how they behave to figure out who the wolves are feels like an insurmountable obstacle. Coup is easy; I just have to know what cards are showing and think about what the odds are that someone is lying. They stay in the same place the whole time and there aren't many of them either; usually three or four others at most. (Interestingly, Danae loves LARPs and hates Coup, so maybe they're not as alike as a lot of folks think?)

I know a number of folks who LARP. I'm curious on their thoughts about this.
Another thought; how do people who are blind or otherwise highly visually impaired LARP? Maybe using similar approaches could help.

One relevant thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/LARP/comments/9zsral/larping_with_visual_impairment/

Unfortunately, the most helpful comment seems to be "play a blind character", which isn't exactly applicable to my issues.

Guild Wars 2 and Wrist Pain

And now for a style of gaming completely different!

Danae and I are playing a *lot* of Guild Wars 2. It's a ton of fun. However, I find that I am limited in more difficult parts that require a lot of movement/skill use combination because of my chronic wrist pain.

I have a mouse I love with three joysticks on it that I've mapped enough controls to that I can play with one hand. (I don't know what I'm going to do when this long-discontinued mouse dies; it literally makes games playable for long periods without nearly debilitating wrist and arm pain.) But I have to look down at the bottom of the screen to click the skill buttons and I can't do that while moving and dodging and tracking enemies in combat when things are very complex. (Mapped to my mouse, I have movement on one joystick. Mounting/dismounting, inventory, and trading post on another, and map and the interact key on the third. There are a few open positions left for mapping functions, but not nearly enough for all the combat skills I'd want to have easy access to.

Danae thought maybe I could try playing a tanky build; one who can stand around and soak damage. However, it seems to me like Guild Wars encourages more rounded, less single-purpose characters who all have the ability to engage in relatively complex combat strategies when dealing with high-level content. And that's awesome! But makes it harder to do things one-handed.
If you're curious, this is the mouse I have. I bought it new old stock from Amazon, and found a third party driver that someone wrote that allows much more functionality for the joysticks. I would hug the person who wrote it if I could and they liked hugs.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/80954-sandio-3d-game-o2-mouse-review