diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 789f750322..a865a4569b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ without arguments starts a full interactive Python console.
 - Make code auto-formatted with Black.
 - Make default `set` command able to edit nested structures (PR by Aaron McMillan)
 - Allow running Evennia test suite from core repo with `make test`.
+- Return `store_key` from `TickerHandler.add` and add `store_key` as a kwarg to 
+  the `TickerHandler.remove` method. This makes it easier to manage tickers. 
 
 
 ## Evennia 0.9 (2018-2019)
diff --git a/evennia/scripts/scripts.py b/evennia/scripts/scripts.py
index 4b1f33f105..b4bede818a 100644
--- a/evennia/scripts/scripts.py
+++ b/evennia/scripts/scripts.py
@@ -168,9 +168,8 @@ class ScriptBase(ScriptDB, metaclass=TypeclassBase):
         Start task runner.
 
         """
-        if self.ndb._task:
-            return
-        self.ndb._task = ExtendedLoopingCall(self._step_task)
+        if not self.ndb._task:
+            self.ndb._task = ExtendedLoopingCall(self._step_task)
 
         if self.db._paused_time:
             # the script was paused; restarting
diff --git a/evennia/scripts/tickerhandler.py b/evennia/scripts/tickerhandler.py
index 49a450e41e..78e6166786 100644
--- a/evennia/scripts/tickerhandler.py
+++ b/evennia/scripts/tickerhandler.py
@@ -499,6 +499,11 @@ class TickerHandler(object):
                 callback every time it is called. This must be data possible
                 to pickle!
 
+        Returns:
+            store_key (tuple): The immutable store-key for this ticker. This can
+                be stored and passed into `.remove(store_key=store_key)` later to
+                easily stop this ticker later.
+
         Notes:
             The callback will be identified by type and stored either as
             as combination of serialized database object + methodname or
@@ -521,17 +526,29 @@ class TickerHandler(object):
         self.ticker_storage[store_key] = (args, kwargs)
         self.ticker_pool.add(store_key, *args, **kwargs)
         self.save()
+        return store_key
 
-    def remove(self, interval=60, callback=None, idstring="", persistent=True):
+    def remove(
+        self, interval=60, callback=None, idstring="", persistent=True, store_key=None
+    ):
         """
-        Remove object from ticker or only remove it from tickers with
-        a given interval.
+        Remove ticker subscription from handler.
 
         Args:
             interval (int, optional): Interval of ticker to remove.
             callback (callable function or method): Either a function or
                 the method of a typeclassed object.
             idstring (str, optional): Identifier id of ticker to remove.
+            persistent (bool, optional): Whether this ticker is persistent or not.
+            store_key (str, optional): If given, all other kwargs are ignored and only
+                this is used to identify the ticker.
+
+        Raises:
+            KeyError: If no matching ticker was found to remove.
+
+        Notes:
+            The store-key is normally built from the interval/callback/idstring/persistent values;
+            but if the `store_key` is explicitly given, this is used instead.
 
         """
         if isinstance(callback, int):
@@ -539,13 +556,17 @@ class TickerHandler(object):
                 "TICKER_HANDLER.remove has changed: "
                 "the interval is now the first argument, callback the second."
             )
-
-        obj, path, callfunc = self._get_callback(callback)
-        store_key = self._store_key(obj, path, interval, callfunc, idstring, persistent)
+        if not store_key:
+            obj, path, callfunc = self._get_callback(callback)
+            store_key = self._store_key(
+                obj, path, interval, callfunc, idstring, persistent
+            )
         to_remove = self.ticker_storage.pop(store_key, None)
         if to_remove:
             self.ticker_pool.remove(store_key)
             self.save()
+        else:
+            raise KeyError(f"No Ticker was found matching the store-key {store_key}.")
 
     def clear(self, interval=None):
         """
diff --git a/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py b/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py
index 5e6fd5c8e1..864e053a1c 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/dbserialize.py
@@ -587,7 +587,15 @@ def to_pickle(data):
                 return [process_item(val) for val in item]
         elif hasattr(item, "sessid") and hasattr(item, "conn_time"):
             return pack_session(item)
-        return pack_dbobj(item)
+        try:
+            return pack_dbobj(item)
+        except TypeError:
+            return item
+        except Exception:
+            logger.log_error(
+                f"The object {item} of type {type(item)} could not be stored."
+            )
+            raise
 
     return process_item(data)
 
@@ -726,12 +734,20 @@ def from_pickle(data, db_obj=None):
 
 def do_pickle(data):
     """Perform pickle to string"""
-    return dumps(data, protocol=PICKLE_PROTOCOL)
+    try:
+        return dumps(data, protocol=PICKLE_PROTOCOL)
+    except Exception:
+        logger.log_error(f"Could not pickle data for storage: {data}")
+        raise
 
 
 def do_unpickle(data):
     """Retrieve pickle from pickled string"""
-    return loads(to_bytes(data))
+    try:
+        return loads(to_bytes(data))
+    except Exception:
+        logger.log_error(f"Could not unpickle data from storage: {data}")
+        raise
 
 
 def dbserialize(data):
diff --git a/evennia/utils/text2html.py b/evennia/utils/text2html.py
index 3474b5612b..8e42db1a46 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/text2html.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/text2html.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ snippet #577349 on http://code.activestate.com.
 """
 
 import re
-import cgi
+from html import escape as html_escape
 from .ansi import *
 
 
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ class TextToHTMLparser(object):
         """
         cdict = match.groupdict()
         if cdict["htmlchars"]:
-            return cgi.escape(cdict["htmlchars"])
+            return html_escape(cdict["htmlchars"])
         elif cdict["lineend"]:
             return "<br>"
         elif cdict["firstspace"]: