What are y'all up to these days?

[Bunch]

I'm worried this will seriously slow down the "Attack the Darkness! The Geriatric Brigade" PBP game.

Fortunately that saga runs at a manageable pace.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Alright, now I'm freaking out.

I live in Manhattan. Cuomo's saying the virus might not PEAK for 45 days. Everything's shutting down. This city is going to crash and burn. What am I looking at? Crime waves? Mad Max at the food store? My company is switching us to teaching English online, but how many people are going to want to take online courses when the whole appeal of our company was the ESL immersion experience in NYC? How long can I even put up with running lessons online? Running RPGs online is already Herculean, and that's for entertainment!

Someone please tell me I don't need to start practicing knife-fighting skills.

EDIT: Forgot the hyphen in "knife-fighting" as an adjective.

 

[Bill Reich]

You don't have to but it can't hurt and it's fun.

 

[urbwar]

Someone please tell me I don't need to start practicing knife-fighting skills.

EDIT: Forgot the hyphen in "knife-fighting" as an adjective.

You could learn knife fighting, but when the other person pulls out a gun, you'd have wished you learned to shoot instead. At least with a gun, if you run out of ammo, you can still beat them with the firearm

 

[Bunch]

You could learn knife fighting, but when the other person pulls out a gun, you'd have wished you learned to shoot instead. At least with a gun, if you run out of ammo, you can still beat them with the firearm

It's new York. Who has guns there?

 

[urbwar]

It's new York. Who has guns there?

Plenty. My sisters boyfriend owns a couple. Plenty of criminals do (because they don't give a damn about the law). It is hardly a gun free zone

 

[Dumarest]

It's new York. Who has guns there?

At least 30,000 civilian permits last I checked, plus law enforcement, plus criminals, plus illegal gun ownership by otherwise law-abiding citizens = who doesn't?

 

[Bunch]

Writing characters up for somewhat esoteric systems.
So far I have Justifiers and Autoduel Champions. Looking to get three or so more done before I start posting here to discuss.

 

[spittingimage]

Had to miss my weekly game last night because I had coronavirus.

Except I didn't - the sufferer my co-worker was exposed to last week made it all up hoping to get some extra paid time off work. Now he has all the time off work he could hope for, but no way to fund it. Silly bugger.

The pandemic doesn't frighten me half as much as the people overreacting to it, or the ones trying to exploit it for personal gain.

 

[AsenRG]

You could learn knife fighting, but when the other person pulls out a gun, you'd have wished you learned to shoot instead. At least with a gun, if you run out of ammo, you can still beat them with the firearm

Well, a knife is never out of ammo...

It's new York. Who has guns there?

Criminals? You know, people who neglect to follow the law ?

So obviously the solution is to learn to use a knife and a gun.

 

[urbwar]

Well, a knife is never out of ammo...

Criminals? You know, people who neglect to follow the law ?

So obviously the solution is to learn to use a knife and a gun.

Or get a gun that comes with a blade already attached

 

[Bunch]

Like this?

 

[OHT]

Had to miss my weekly game last night because I had coronavirus.

Except I didn't - the sufferer my co-worker was exposed to last week made it all up hoping to get some extra paid time off work. Now he has all the time off work he could hope for, but no way to fund it. Silly bugger.

The pandemic doesn't frighten me half as much as the people overreacting to it, or the ones trying to exploit it for personal gain.

What an arsehole. Glad he now has more free-time. It was what he wanted, no?

 

[Shipyard Locked]

So there is a chance, hopefully small, that I'll be laid off in three weeks. In the meantime: overtime. So then I'll be unemployed, exhausted, an unarmed in NYC in the middle of the second Great Depression.

Guess I won't need to find a system to roleplay Final Fight, reality is just going to throw me right into the thick of it.

 

[Sommerjon]

So the Curse of Strahd game is on hiatus until we figure out where we can game.

I forgot to mention the latest escapades.
I realize most here say no gaming is better than bad gaming, but this has become so fascinating. I stay to be a part of the slowest trainwreck(pun intended) imaginable.

Last couple of sessions.
Warlock and Bard(both invisible) sneak up to the Giant Blight Thing the evil druids are ritualing into life. The dm has them roll stealth checks every round. The Warlock's temple vein starts thumping. The Fishing for Failure "succeeds" on round 3 (warlock rolls a 9 for stealth.) The human druids, at night, instantly know precisely how far to cast 6 Entangles(75' away). The bard is able to escape the Entanglements because the Entangles weren't "on top" of each other, they were spread out just enough to hit the Warlock six times and the Bard twice(Bard has +2 for Str checks, Warlock has a -1). The bard climbs the Giant Blight to grab the gem in it's chest(why we came here)
"strength check to see if you can grab and yank the gem out " says dm.
Bard rolls Blamo! nat 20... [Oh forgot to mention the dm uses crit/fumble on everything.]
dm "you need to roll another strength check to get the gem out"
Bard "but I rolled a nat 20?"
dm "it's really stuck in there. "
Bard's jaw muscles look like a snake swallowing a mouse.
They finish the ritual the Giant Blight activates and starts heading to the winery, with the bard's arm shoulder deep in it's chest.
The Warlock breaks the Staff of kewlname which kills all Blights within 300 feet. Down goes Giant Blight and a bunch of other Needle Blights or some such.
dm says "now that you are visible the people looking for you now attack you"(6 barbs with great axes were stumbling around trying to find him)
Warlock "I'm still invisible"
dm "you broke the staff that makes you visible"
Warlock "only attacking or casting a spell makes me visible, according to the rules..."
dm "...um plot reasons"....I shit you not those are the exact words used.
dm proceeds to take 4 rounds killing the Warlock. Woulda been less but the Bard was healing him, which the barbs seemed to ignore, oh that's right they are human barbs and couldn't quite see him 45' away, according to the dm.

The rest of the group had been trailing behind the sneakiers...and were able to finally arrive there a round after the Warlock was killed.
dm "um plot reasons"....
we kill the rest, cuz noone ever runs away.
Revivify is cast on the Warlock.
Tiny Hut is cast we sleep.

Last session
We wake up.
Strahd is flying towards us.
We chat, he attacks. We are basically sissy fighting Strahd while he is smacking us around, and out pops more druids and barbs.
dm says "told you bad things can happen"
Yes, that's right we were being punished for not long resting in a dm approved place.
Oh and....
Our cleric of the grave tries casting a third level spell and no access to third level spells, cuz dm reasons.

 

[Dumarest]

So there is a chance, hopefully small, that I'll be laid off in three weeks. In the meantime: overtime. So then I'll be unemployed, exhausted, an unarmed in NYC in the middle of the second Great Depression.

​

 

[Voros]

So they just temporarily laid off 75 percent of my workplace because of the Coronavirus.

They basically only kept the managers on, most of whom have no remote idea of how to cover those who reported to them. Not surprised as we have some of the worse leadership I've ever seen and they tend to panic, made uninformed and rash decisions, etc. Basically they've decided to unload the cost of their workforce onto the federal government for the next month or two.

I think I'm likely to be hired back on as I bring in a lot of money but with this clueless lot you never know. Course with this display of incompentence I'm more likely to start looking for a new job as soon as this is all over, only so much fuckery from above can be tolerated.

 

[Bunch]

So they just temporarily laid off 75 percent of my workplace because of the Coronavirus.

They basically only kept the managers on, most of whom have no remote idea of how to cover those who reported to them. Not surprised as we have some of the worse leadership I've ever seen and they tend to panic, made uninformed and rash decisions, etc. Basically they've decided to unload the cost of their workforce onto the federal government for the next month or two.

I think I'm likely to be hired back on as I bring in a lot of money but with this clueless lot you never know. Course with this display of incompentence I'm more likely to start looking for a new job as soon as this is all over, only so much fuckery from above can be tolerated.

Time to do virtual interviews!

 

[Voros]

Time to do virtual interviews!

My line of work tends to have high turnover so I'm taking it in stride, there's likely a lot of opportunities elsewhere, even currently a lot of contract work out there for applying for emergency funding, just another reason this action is so shortsighted lol.

 

[saskganesh]

Probably will have to switch to Discord in order to get any sort of TTRPG done for the next few (?) months. I'm not looking forward to it, but will likely try it because friends are counting on me for now.

There's other hobbies. I'm also working more, and not less. I do not know if Dungeons and Distancing is for me.

 

[AsenRG]

Months? Why do people speak about months?

So the Curse of Strahd game is on hiatus until we figure out where we can game.

I forgot to mention the latest escapades.
I realize most here say no gaming is better than bad gaming, but this has become so fascinating. I stay to be a part of the slowest trainwreck(pun intended) imaginable.

Last couple of sessions.
Warlock and Bard(both invisible) sneak up to the Giant Blight Thing the evil druids are ritualing into life. The dm has them roll stealth checks every round. The Warlock's temple vein starts thumping. The Fishing for Failure "succeeds" on round 3 (warlock rolls a 9 for stealth.) The human druids, at night, instantly know precisely how far to cast 6 Entangles(75' away). The bard is able to escape the Entanglements because the Entangles weren't "on top" of each other, they were spread out just enough to hit the Warlock six times and the Bard twice(Bard has +2 for Str checks, Warlock has a -1). The bard climbs the Giant Blight to grab the gem in it's chest(why we came here)
"strength check to see if you can grab and yank the gem out " says dm.
Bard rolls Blamo! nat 20... [Oh forgot to mention the dm uses crit/fumble on everything.]
dm "you need to roll another strength check to get the gem out"
Bard "but I rolled a nat 20?"
dm "it's really stuck in there. "
Bard's jaw muscles look like a snake swallowing a mouse.
They finish the ritual the Giant Blight activates and starts heading to the winery, with the bard's arm shoulder deep in it's chest.
The Warlock breaks the Staff of kewlname which kills all Blights within 300 feet. Down goes Giant Blight and a bunch of other Needle Blights or some such.
dm says "now that you are visible the people looking for you now attack you"(6 barbs with great axes were stumbling around trying to find him)
Warlock "I'm still invisible"
dm "you broke the staff that makes you visible"
Warlock "only attacking or casting a spell makes me visible, according to the rules..."
dm "...um plot reasons"....I shit you not those are the exact words used.
dm proceeds to take 4 rounds killing the Warlock. Woulda been less but the Bard was healing him, which the barbs seemed to ignore, oh that's right they are human barbs and couldn't quite see him 45' away, according to the dm.

The rest of the group had been trailing behind the sneakiers...and were able to finally arrive there a round after the Warlock was killed.
dm "um plot reasons"....
we kill the rest, cuz noone ever runs away.
Revivify is cast on the Warlock.
Tiny Hut is cast we sleep.

Last session
We wake up.
Strahd is flying towards us.
We chat, he attacks. We are basically sissy fighting Strahd while he is smacking us around, and out pops more druids and barbs.
dm says "told you bad things can happen"
Yes, that's right we were being punished for not long resting in a dm approved place.
Oh and....
Our cleric of the grave tries casting a third level spell and no access to third level spells, cuz dm reasons.

BTW, are you looking for another DM now? I would be.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Months? Why do people speak about months?

Reading the news right now is very, very sobering. It's hard to tell how much is reasonable prediction and how much is panic-mongering, but I had serious trouble getting to sleep last night. No one in NYC is talking about anything else. Most of my friends don't even know what's going on in the presidential campaign anymore, a topic they were following closely just last week. There's talk of 20-24% unemployment for the foreseeable future. Forget going to the hospital for stuff like cancer, kidney stones and injuries.

I'm scared. It's not a joke or a meme anymore. If some predictions are right, in two to four weeks a lot more people are going to realize just how bad this is, and herd mentality could plunge us into anarchy. I don't know where to go if food supply chains and utilities get cut off in NYC.

If really bad shit goes down, I just want to say I love this place and the people who populate it. May you all come out unscathed.

 

[Endless Flight]

Shipyard Locked we love you too. Stay safe and try to keep your spirits up.

Yes, it will take months to dig out of this hole, possible a year or even more if the economy tanks. This is one of those events that’s going to be talked about fifty years from now. In the grocery business, we don’t see it getting back to normal until the end of summer. Some products will take a year to totally recover.

 

[Bunch]

Reading the news right now is very, very sobering. It's hard to tell how much is reasonable prediction and how much is panic-mongering, but I had serious trouble getting to sleep last night. No one in NYC is talking about anything else. Most of my friends don't even know what's going on in the presidential campaign anymore, a topic they were following closely just last week. There's talk of 20-24% unemployment for the foreseeable future. Forget going to the hospital for stuff like cancer, kidney stones and injuries.

I'm scared. It's not a joke or a meme anymore. If some predictions are right, in two to four weeks a lot more people are going to realize just how bad this is, and herd mentality could plunge us into anarchy. I don't know where to go if food supply chains and utilities get cut off in NYC.

If really bad shit goes down, I just want to say I love this place and the people who populate it. May you all come out unscathed.

Utilities and food chains are not in any danger that I've heard anywhere in the world. This is not good but it's not Spanish flu. People don't wake up on and die the same day. It's not good to get if you're younger but for most people under 50 you will not be hospitalized.
If they do in NY what they are doing here they are attempting to turn some hospitals into non Covid 19 hospitals so normal issues can still get treatment. I have cancer doctor friends who are still treating their patients.

It's not going to be easy. But we as a country and a world made it through the 1918 flu pandemic. This is not as bad as that. I say that with no intention of minimizing this pandemic. In 1918 a more lethal disease swept through the world targeting the young and healthy at a time when 90% of all doctors and nurses were off helping a war effort.
We made it through that one. We'll make it through this one. The governments made mistakes then just as they are now but they did eventually get things right. Take it seriously but try to breathe and not panic. Communicate your needs. People are starting to think more about how they can help vs how they can spew venom.

 

[Bunch]

Shipyard Locked we love you too. Stay safe and try to keep your spirits up.

Yes, it will take months to dig out of this hole, possible a year or even more if the economy tanks. This is one of those events that’s going to be talked about fifty years from now. In the grocery business, we don’t see it getting back to normal until the end of summer. Some products will take a year to totally recover.

The strange thing is if this ends up like the 1918 pandemic it may not get talked about at all when it's done. I've been looking into that pandemic a lot to see what can be learned/done. If anything gives me hope it's how much better this time around is and the fact we survived that one.

 

[saskganesh]

I gamed last night. I sat 15 feet away from the DM. It worked out.

 

[under_score]

Try not to get bogged down in pessimism. Things are weird right now, but the world is still functioning, and there's plenty of good news if you look for it. People are generally doing a lot to help each other out right now. That's nice to see. Maybe general hygiene is improving, at least for a while. Pollution is down.
Our doctor told us this week that they're 90% sure the flu I had a couple weeks ago was actually the coronavirus. Fortunately I self-quarantined the first day I woke up with a cough and am back to 100% now. So I imagine there are an awful lot of people who've already had the virus without realizing it. So while the infection rate is probably much higher than estimated, the mortality rate is significantly lower. For myself, it wasn't so bad. A few days of misery and I'm good as new. I hope that most people have it so easy.

Dr. Crawford, professor of Norse studies, posted a video on the following stanza from the Poetic Edda today:

There's always a better choice
than cowardice, if you
have business to take care of.
One day long ago
my life was already shaped,
and my fate was fixed

Let's boldly carry on in a this new world of masks and sanitizers.

 

[AsenRG]

I'm planning a session for tonight. The players might sit a meter away, or not, as they please .

 

[Jetstream]

I'm planning a session for tonight. The players might sit a meter away, or not, as they please .

A-hem, 1.8 meters, thankyouverymuch.

 

[AsenRG]

A-hem, 1.8 meters, thankyouverymuch.

Not enough space in my kitchen!

 

[spittingimage]

Had my first game via discord last night. It was slow going, but mostly because we're much better at punching things than investigating them. (Seriously, every other adventure in this game has been a kidnapping or an attempted kidnapping and the GM finally had to point out that maybe these half-dozen kidnappings are connected in some way.)

 

[urbwar]

Reading the news right now is very, very sobering. It's hard to tell how much is reasonable prediction and how much is panic-mongering, but I had serious trouble getting to sleep last night. No one in NYC is talking about anything else. Most of my friends don't even know what's going on in the presidential campaign anymore, a topic they were following closely just last week. There's talk of 20-24% unemployment for the foreseeable future. Forget going to the hospital for stuff like cancer, kidney stones and injuries.

I'm scared. It's not a joke or a meme anymore. If some predictions are right, in two to four weeks a lot more people are going to realize just how bad this is, and herd mentality could plunge us into anarchy. I don't know where to go if food supply chains and utilities get cut off in NYC.

If really bad shit goes down, I just want to say I love this place and the people who populate it. May you all come out unscathed.

I lived in NYC most of my life. My sister, her boyfriend, my nephew and his wife all still live there (as do all of my closest friends, two of whom are healthcare professionals). Not one of them even are even remotely freaking out like you are right now. Not one of them is acting like the city is falling apart (because, truth be told, it hasn't at this point).

The food supply chain is not going to run out. You may not be able to get certain items (because the idiotic stores didn't institute limiting how much people could purchase right off the bat like they should have), but it will be months before there might be an issue. Utilities will not get cut off, and cancer patients will still get treatment (because their lives depend on it). Are things bad? Sure, because missteps by various people made it so, but it is not the end of the world like some want to make it out to be.

I lived through the Summer of Sam, 9/11 and multiple storms like Sandy. NYC is one of the toughest cities in the country, if not the entire world. When times are hard, the city is more likely to come together than fall apart. It's what New Yorkers do. Hell, I wish the economy hadn't forced me to move somewhere else. 6 years living in Oregon, and I still consider myself a New Yorker (though one in exile). I even renewed my State ID with my Portland address, because the NY DMV let me do so. Every time I get carded, people here think it's so much better than the old fashioned ID's used in Oregon.

You need to do something to stop stressing yourself out like this. All you're doing is making yourself freak out. You're doing yourself no good by believing the worst case scenario is happening. It isn't. You have one of the best governors in the country doing everything he can to protect New York and the people who live there. Life is going to be rough for awhile as the country recovers, but this isn't the end of the world. Things were far worse with the Great Depression and Influenza epidemics than this. As long as lessons are learned, and steps taken to not let it get this bad again, things will get better.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

You need to do something to stop stressing yourself out like this. All you're doing is making yourself freak out. You're doing yourself no good by believing the worst case scenario is happening.

My girlfriend wants you to know she appreciates how you're trying to slap some sense into me.

 

[urbwar]

My girlfriend wants you to know she appreciates how you're trying to slap some sense into me.

It pains me to see you in such distress. The best thing to do is hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. If everyone gives into fear, then things will descend into chaos. Given the people most important to me are where you are, the fact that they all remain positive is a good sign. My nephew celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday. One of my close friends is expecting his first child to be born soon. Life goes on, because it has to.

Stop reading and/or watching the news. Stop talking about what's going on with friends. Talk about something else. The more you keep focusing on what is happening, the more you give in to fear. You have to stop doing that to yourself. Things will get better some day. It may not seem possible right now, but it will. Society will likely have to adapt and change a bit in case this happens again, but maybe we'll be better off making those changes. I refuse to be afraid. Being afraid is easy. Being hopeful given all that is happening is the real challenge.

 

[spittingimage]

My girlfriend wants you to know she appreciates how you're trying to slap some sense into me.

With the lockdowns and social distancing, it's easy to feel like it's all out of control. But those things aren't the disease, they're our weapons against the disease. Everything is following a plan.

 

[Raleel]

So here I am trying to make a werewolf character. i feel like I’ve forgotten more systems than I know. But right now I think he’s a lupus bonegnawer ahroun. He’s a social justice warrior for sure, he’s in the hood camp. At least I think it’s A he. Might turn into a she. around our area we have a lot of immigrant labor, and the character looks out for them. Most of them are Hispanic, and so is the character, and has kinfolk. He’s got a pretty range.

being lupus, doesn’t know a lot of human stuff but has a little car repair, but most of the time broken things just work (trash to treasure). A few rites , and knows a lot of tricky things (enigmas 3). going to be part of the new pack out of the local sept (name undetermined, I suggested the Umatilla sept).

The major northwest volcanoes all have caerns on them. the local area, though, has a lot of wyrm (nuclear waste), weaver (national lab), and wyld (rugfed areas, agriculture, etc). Confluence of 3 rivers, two of which are heavily dammed (weaver). It should be a good hot spot.

 

[The Butcher]

So here I am trying to make a werewolf character. i feel like I’ve forgotten more systems than I know. But right now I think he’s a lupus bonegnawer ahroun. He’s a social justice warrior for sure, he’s in the hood camp. At least I think it’s A he. Might turn into a she. around our area we have a lot of immigrant labor, and the character looks out for them. Most of them are Hispanic, and so is the character, and has kinfolk. He’s got a pretty range.

being lupus, doesn’t know a lot of human stuff but has a little car repair, but most of the time broken things just work (trash to treasure). A few rites , and knows a lot of tricky things (enigmas 3). going to be part of the new pack out of the local sept (name undetermined, I suggested the Umatilla sept).

The major northwest volcanoes all have caerns on them. the local area, though, has a lot of wyrm (nuclear waste), weaver (national lab), and wyld (rugfed areas, agriculture, etc). Confluence of 3 rivers, two of which are heavily dammed (weaver). It should be a good hot spot.

Do you have a game coming up, or just generating PCs for fun?

I have played way less Werewolf: the Apocalypse than I’d like. Such a fun game. I was very partial to Silver Fangs and Shadow Lords, though I did play a Silent Strider once.

And I’d love to run Werewolf: the Forsaken some day, even if the prospect intimidates me a bit.

The Pacific NW sounds like a great setting for either.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Working from home side project completed. A 1/270 scale Tatooine town.

 

[Raleel]

Do you have a game coming up, or just generating PCs for fun?

I have played way less Werewolf: the Apocalypse than I’d like. Such a fun game. I was very partial to Silver Fangs and Shadow Lords, though I did play a Silent Strider once.

And I’d love to run Werewolf: the Forsaken some day, even if the prospect intimidates me a bit.

The Pacific NW sounds like a great setting for either.

Gaming in the Time of Coronavirus has led us to moving online, and there was a call to try something else for a bit. I think I'm happy for the break, though Mythras Central American Drug Wars in the 1980s was a very close second place in the voting. Werewolf 20th anniversary won, and so we will give this a try on roll20. Maybe I'll take to writing a couple of small settings or adventures while we learn a new system, everyone confuses it with Mythras, then we go back to that (that's what happened last time).

 

[The Butcher]

Gaming in the Time of Coronavirus has led us to moving online, and there was a call to try something else for a bit. I think I'm happy for the break, though Mythras Central American Drug Wars in the 1980s was a very close second place in the voting. Werewolf 20th anniversary won, and so we will give this a try on roll20. Maybe I'll take to writing a couple of small settings or adventures while we learn a new system, everyone confuses it with Mythras, then we go back to that (that's what happened last time).

Mythras might actually be a very good system for Werewolf. Does After the Vampire Wars have rules for werewolves? If it does you might just plug in tribes as cults and bam, Mythras Werewolf game.