Quote from: Godspar Games;1125293The way I see it, everything is grist for the mill. But I totally respect avoiding the topic entirely.

I agree that everything is grist for the mill, but I prefer to let the mill grind it into unrecognizability and mix all the things together before using them.  So, while it's certainly likely that something (directly or indirectly) covid-inspired will make it into one of my games someday, it won't happen until months or years from now and it will not be wearing a flashing neon "Hey!  Look!  I'm the coronavirus!" sign.  It might look like I'm avoiding the topic entirely, but the truth is more just that I prefer my gaming world to be distinct from the real world.  (I don't do holiday-themed games either, or at least not based on the real-world date.  If I'm running a modern-day campaign, then Christmas will happen in-game, but it will happen when the in-game calendar says December 25, not when the real-world calendar does.)

Quote from: Koltar;1125316No one can have 'game sessions' like normal because of social distancing and shelter in place protocols.

Although it's not my preference, a lot of people play RPGs mainly or exclusively online these days.  I would expect those games to continue on as normal with little or no effect from social distancing measures.

Yeah, I'd pass for now. Too close for comfort. Maybe in a year or two I might run something where 'the coronavirus' causes a 'corona' of light to appear around your pupils as you either gain superpowers or spontaneously combust.

Right now I'm just playing 7 Days To Die and being thankful there's no zombies.

I have 4 games going, which is 2 more than before moving online! Went with Roll20.

In one of my longest-running campaigns, the countries of the world were still recovering from a magical bioweapon apocalypse 2,000 years ago, including plagues, bioengineered creatures, hostile plants, fungi, and so on.  And certain parties were starting to mess around with recently unearthed tech.

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125271Everything I see in the world gets run through my mutative creativity mill and gets used as fodder. As such, I cannot help but find ways to use COVID-19 and the web of related thoughts in my gaming world/sessions. Below is a link to something I've called the "Corvixix Parasite", a sort of jungle fungus that drives its victims mad, spreads on the wind, and turns its victims into crowbait. Which is surprisingly similar to the way fear and ignorance seem to be sweeping across the world, turning normal people into toilet-paper hoarders haha.

Check the link and hopefully you find it interesting/useful.
https://www.godspargames.com/godspargames/corvixix

How are YOU using the current pandemic in your games and in your worldbuilding and storytelling?

Stay safe, folks!

Well, I certainly wouldn't use a global pandemic to help advertise my own gaming products.....

Quote from: jeff37923;1125414Well, I certainly wouldn't use a global pandemic to help advertise my own gaming products.....

Hey man, I appreciate the thought, and I would parrot it along with you but for a few things

1) I work in healthcare and spend my days driving around town treating people in their homes. As an "essential service" I dont get to hide out all day in the safety of my home. To be fair, I'm happy that I get to do what I do and continue to help, but be that as it may, my experience is different than yours and I find creative outlets to be a far healthier and more productive form of therapy than booze.
2) I'm not selling any products. I dont SELL anything. In fact if youd clicked through to the post you'd have seen that sure, theres some pandemic-centric homebrew content there, but I've also included a huge chunk of some of the perspective I've gained from my field work over the past month.

Again, if I had come up with a COVID-19 based module and was using it to drive traffic to a site where I sell things, I would agree: thats in poor taste and pretty scummy.

This is more of a pressure relief valve post, and a thread for other people to come and share how they're using RPGs/storytelling/worldbuilding as a coping mechanism.

Hopefully this clears some of the misunderstanding up.

Anyhow, stay healthy, friend.

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125444Hopefully this clears some of the misunderstanding up.

I've found that the morbid humor commonly seen among healthcare workers as a coping mechanism is often unappreciated among others. Reading the room is key. When much of the room is still worried and uncertain about what is going on, I tend to keep it to myself.

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125444Hey man, I appreciate the thought, and I would parrot it along with you but for a few things

1) I work in healthcare and spend my days driving around town treating people in their homes. As an "essential service" I dont get to hide out all day in the safety of my home. To be fair, I'm happy that I get to do what I do and continue to help, but be that as it may, my experience is different than yours and I find creative outlets to be a far healthier and more productive form of therapy than booze.
2) I'm not selling any products. I dont SELL anything. In fact if youd clicked through to the post you'd have seen that sure, theres some pandemic-centric homebrew content there, but I've also included a huge chunk of some of the perspective I've gained from my field work over the past month.

Again, if I had come up with a COVID-19 based module and was using it to drive traffic to a site where I sell things, I would agree: thats in poor taste and pretty scummy.

This is more of a pressure relief valve post, and a thread for other people to come and share how they're using RPGs/storytelling/worldbuilding as a coping mechanism.

Hopefully this clears some of the misunderstanding up.

Anyhow, stay healthy, friend.

Good response. I apologize for my snark.

I haven't read the thread, but as I'm somewhat worried about all this, I imagine "it's too soon". Many of us (those scared, worried, etc.) will likely need some time to appreciate the thought.

Quote from: Koltar;1125316What??

What The F?

No one can have 'game sessions' like normal because of social distancing and shelter in place protocols.

- Ed C.

Yes

Yes we can

It is called RollD20 and Discord or Skype.

Sometimes I wonder if you just come here to stir shit up sometimes. Of course not everyone wants to do online gaming yet with what we have in terms of Internet tools for online rpgs. To claim no one can game during the pandemic is talking out of ones ass.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1125459I've found that the morbid humor commonly seen among healthcare workers as a coping mechanism is often unappreciated among others. Reading the room is key. When much of the room is still worried and uncertain about what is going on, I tend to keep it to myself.

This. I have married two RNs in my life. Eventually I got into Healthcare on the Admin side for about 15 years, then Clinical side (CNA for several years working with Alzheimers patients) I hear a lot of this morbid humor/coping. It took me a long time to get used to it. When my wife and her RN friends are around I have to try to ignore my own sensitivities and remind myself  "read the room" as you say.

Quote from: trechriron;1125499I haven't read the thread, but as I'm somewhat worried about all this, I imagine "it's too soon". Many of us (those scared, worried, etc.) will likely need some time to appreciate the thought.

Yeah man, in the name of "read the room" and "its too soon" I'm thinking I'm going to have to redirect my blog posts for the time being. I was working on a "Book of Wretchedness" as it were, just a shitload of diseases and poisons and parasites and plagues.

Taking a page out of Burt Bacharach's book, maybe I should work on something less horrible and pandemical?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSBrn6wTZSA

Also, I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised at how civil people are here, especially in the current world. Glad people arent acting like TP hoarders here, haha

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125524Yeah man, in the name of "read the room" and "its too soon" I'm thinking I'm going to have to redirect my blog posts for the time being. I was working on a "Book of Wretchedness" as it were, just a shitload of diseases and poisons and parasites and plagues.

Taking a page out of Burt Bacharach's book, maybe I should work on something less horrible and pandemical?

Nah, don't censor yourself. Don't keep working on it right now if you don't want to, but don't redirect/erase anything.

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125524Also, I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised at how civil people are here, especially in the current world. Glad people arent acting like TP hoarders here, haha

This place is one of my favorite things on the internet. I think it's telling that there are more nuanced and enlightening discussions on this elf game site with a hard line on free speech than in places dedicated to some of these less elf-game-y topics.

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125524Yeah man, in the name of "read the room" and "its too soon" I'm thinking I'm going to have to redirect my blog posts for the time being. I was working on a "Book of Wretchedness" as it were, just a shitload of diseases and poisons and parasites and plagues.

Taking a page out of Burt Bacharach's book, maybe I should work on something less horrible and pandemical?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSBrn6wTZSA

Also, I gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised at how civil people are here, especially in the current world. Glad people arent acting like TP hoarders here, haha

If looking for wretchedness, may I direct your attention to the "jigger" or Chigoe Flea. I threw this at a Traveller game group who decided they wanted to run barefoot and go skinny dipping on a newly found Earthlike world before surveying the ecology.

Quote from: Godspar Games;1125524Glad people arent acting like TP hoarders here, haha

To the contrary, I have the complete set of FFG's Star Wars books. Plenty to wipe my ass for a good long while.