I'm probably crazy, but I have realized that the most fun I have in the game is in the middle of relatively low stakes chaos.

We spend a lot (A LOT) of this game preparing and gathering resources to make better weapons and armor. Losing it and getting it back always feels really high stakes to me.

But every once in a while, you've already lost it any way, and then stuff goes further sideways, and I realized that's when I have the most fun.

We (my husband and I) were playing last night. He and the kids have been building a proper fortress at the edge of the swamp while I've been grinding it out in our Meadows base to make a bunch of good food and mead. The base is getting pretty cool and they have put quite a bit of work into it. They have made it very defensible against enemies, but currently there is one weakness point - the wooden gate to get in. My husband put spikes around it and eventually when we have the iron for it we are going to replace that wooden gate with an iron gate. But other than that, the place is solid.

Last night, things went seriously sideways. Husband and I decided to venture into the swamp because he needs more iron and I am still looking for turnips so I can upgrade my cauldron. Things were going pretty well until we ran into a draugr spawner that we couldn't see was there because it was inside a building. The draugrs and druagr elites just kept coming until eventually we were both dead (we later went back and got our stuff and destroyed the spawner once we found it.)

After dying that first time, we woke up naked in our beds in the fortress, and immediately a foul stench rolled in from the swamp. No problem though, I have seen this happen before when I was signed off and my husband was signed in but AFK ‐ there was a bunch of yelling and thumping and then after a couple of minutes they went away because they couldn't get in. So we're chilling in there going through chests trying to find useful stuff, when all of the sudden, Husband who is closer to the door goes "Ah shit, they're in the house." He forgot to repair the gate and spikes from the last time it happened, and they broke in.

Absolute bedlam ensues. Draugrs and skeletons all over the house, bashing it up. We're naked and bare handed. Every time we die, they just run over to our beds and hack us up the second we respawn. Finally I get a few seconds break when respawning because they are all over at his bed killing him again, so I yell I'm going to try to lead them out of the house and he needs to fix the door. I get their attention, and run out of the house with a whole pack of skeletons and draugrs behind me, and then I just lead them on a merry chase through the Black Forest. I was hoping I could find a mob of grey dwarves to distract the draugrs with, but it was sadly not to be. I kept finding single grey dwarves and the draugrs would most likely kill them with one shot (I didn't stay to watch) because the draugrs would veer off for like one second and then be back behind me again.

In the meantime, husband is back at the house going "shit, they broke the work bench, keep running."

Finally he fixed the work bench, made a hammer, fixed the gate, and I could run home.

I passed him on my way back in, and he looked like a nightmare come to life. He was naked except for the only gear he could find in the chaos - a bone tower sheild, a root mask, and an axe. I ran inside, he killed the horde, and we both laughed until we cried.

And that is the most fun I've ever had playing this game. What's yours?