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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: Spinachcat on March 12, 2021, 04:10:48 AM

Title: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Spinachcat on March 12, 2021, 04:10:48 AM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

So, how many of you have returned to gaming with your friends in reach of the pizza?
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Kyle Aaron on March 12, 2021, 04:18:37 AM
We're on opposite ends of the city to each-other, we used to meet in the CBD but the places there have closed permanently thanks to the lockdowns. We've lost a few game stores, too, and a few more have gone to warehouses and no longer have storefronts.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Chris24601 on March 12, 2021, 05:40:00 AM
I’ve never been down with masks and the people complying drops by the day here. Despite the signs, I can walk into just about any local restaurant maskless without comment from the staff.

Winter has been a boon since no one cares about effectiveness, I just throw the same scarf I use to keep my neck and face warm loosely across my lower face if anyone gives me issues and the funniest part is you can have a two inch gap between the scarf and your face with it barely coming up to your lip and they act like it’s the same as a mask... as long as they don’t have line of sight to your mouth it’s good.

Anyway, we tried to get some online gaming going last March, but had given up and started meeting in person at our homes starting last May. That was before the idiotic mask mandates started up so we’ve never masked at the table because we all know it’s stupid.

I recently did start an online game via Discord, but that’s because one of my friends’ jobs requires them to be on the road all over the country for three to six weeks at a time with no pattern beyond demand for his services. It’s just easier to get a regular game in using online gaming and the voice chat, dice bots and theatre of the mind system we chose make trade offs worth it for the sake of keeping my friend involved.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Crusader X on March 12, 2021, 06:33:16 AM
My group started a Basic Fantasy campaign last year, but we only got one session in before the Covid fiasco started.  I am now trying to get the band back together, and hopefully we start playing in-person again in the next few weeks.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: rgalex on March 12, 2021, 07:58:01 AM
When Ohio shut down the first time we took a month off from our in person gaming.  Most of us used the free time to do some home improvement projects and other things we usually didn't have the time for.  Once the lockdown was up we went back to in person gaming, despite the heavy implication that you should have a "bubble" and not mix households.  No one masked.

We had one guy who was going to go home for Christmas/New Year so he stopped coming in person 2 weeks ahead and joined in via Skype.  He's got elderly parents and was taking some extra precautions before going back.  No one minded and we just continued on.

When the curfew started we had one guy who wanted to obey it (he's pretty straight-laced like that).  No one raised a fuss.  Since our Saturday game goes from 1pm to 11pm we just agreed to cut our sessions short so he could get home in time.

There was a 2 week period we took off because our GM had come into contact with multiple COVID positive people where he worked.  Once he seemed clear of anything we picked back up.

We're back on our normal schedule now, despite Ohio still warning about mixing multiple households.  Still no one masking.  We tend to get individual pizzas though but that's more because we can't agree on toppings. :)
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on March 12, 2021, 08:11:00 AM
Yeah online only, I don't fancy losing child custody. Looking to restart when lockdown eases.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Abraxus on March 12, 2021, 08:31:47 AM
Looks like someone pissed and took a dump in the OP cereal or may be it's the time of the month who knows.

For the moment and the foreseeable future online. Unlike other places my neck of the woods is very strict when it comes to wearing masks and lockdown in general. As well getting closer to 50 years old and no longer feel like driving or taking public transport to a game session.

In person or online who gives a flying fuck what method is used as long as everyone is having fun. Gamers need to realize it's 2021 and how rpgs are being played is changing. Instead of being grognard and safekeeping  how about just about everyone having fun with their hobby.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Steven Mitchell on March 12, 2021, 08:49:45 AM
We never stopped in person and never wore masks when together.  What we did was slow down in person because of things unrelated to disease.  Our group has had scheduling issues related to work and personal changes that have shot our available time slots to hell and gone.  So we've started an online supplement to that in an effort to keep going despite those changes.

My work game got squashed, because it was a recurring bi-weekly lunch thing.  No one in the office; so no game.

The time I would have spent prepping D&D 5E got instead put into me getting off my butt and getting my own design into playtesting shape.  Guess I can't complain about how it worked out, since now I have my alternative ready to break from WokerdsOfTheCoast.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Lunamancer on March 12, 2021, 09:10:47 AM
My weekly in-person game which I have to cross state lines for hasn't missed a single session.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Jim in Oz on March 12, 2021, 09:12:17 AM
We play face to face but then again in Australia we didn't fuck it up royally like in other places.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: K Peterson on March 12, 2021, 10:42:02 AM
Haven't had face-to-face gaming since February of last year. It's all been VTT play since then.

I was fine with shutting FtF down from February to May last year. It seemed sensible and precautionary, and I was curious to explore VTT and see if it could be supplemental after the pandemic and the shutdowns came to an end (like, we could play an alternate campaign over VTT if some players were unable to attend a session of FtF). After May, I was ready to get back to FtF, as did one other player. But, the fear had really set in to the rest of the group at that point and they were unwilling to leave their bunkers. And that fear has continued on to the present date.

This past year has been one of the lowest points in the 4 decades I've played Rpgs. VTT turned out to be a completely awful experience to me. It was much more difficult for everyone to engage with; it took far more work to streamline the experience; and the end result was like some of the most-boring, work Zoom meetings I've been involved in. It didn't help that the campaigns that a couple of other players ran were lackluster.

I ran a VTT session a month ago for the start of a short campaign. And I felt like I busted my ass with both campaign prep, and getting Roll20 setup to cover all eventualities and streamline the experience. I incorporated audio tracks to try to immerse the players. Anything I could to maintain involvement. And VTT still left a bad taste with that experience. So I don't see my self joining a new, modern movement, playing VTT solely. In that case, I'd rather just drop out of Rpging for a time and focus on other hobbies. Similar to the old adage: for me, no gaming is better than VTT gaming. :)

A week from Monday, my state is supposed to enter "Phase 3" of emerging from the lockdown. Which would mean that small groups from different households could meet (without neighbors reporting them, I guess?), and FtF gaming would be back on the table. But, I don't know if our gaming group will reconvene until everyone has had 2 vaccine doses, and whatever other precautions are "needed". Or will fear-mongering continue, as worries about  variant strains and the inevitable, next-Fall-Winter case spikes keep people remote?

I'm pretty pessimistic today, but it feels justifiable after 12 months of disappointment and deserved pessimism. Oh well, I've invested a lot of free time into painting miniatures over that time, and I still like that hobby quite a lot.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Myrdin Potter on March 12, 2021, 01:03:37 PM
I was already gaming via VTT before the pandemic as my core gaming group is scattered all over Canada and the USA.

My local store stopped running AL games (where I DMed on a regular basis) and those have not started up again and I will not DM in a public space until I get vaccinated. That should happen in a month or two (in the greater San Francisco area).

Social bubbles have been allowed in most places without a hard lockdown, so there have not been many rules saying that a responsible group could not stop gaming.

Personally, I have not been willing to just roll the dice and hope. Will start DMing in the local store and going to conventions once I get my shot(s).
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Reckall on March 12, 2021, 01:16:20 PM
Looks like someone pissed and took a dump in the OP cereal or may be it's the time of the month who knows.
Well, he is the guy who, one year ago, was pho-phooing the pandemic with gems like...
Quote
Millions dead? Not gonna happen. At most, we'll see the H1N1 numbers nobody cared about in 2009.
https://www.therpgsite.com/pen-paper-roleplaying-games-rpgs-discussion/is-dnd-twitter-worse-than-coronavirus/msg1124186/#msg1124186
...And I don't think that he felt the need to buy a pencil-sharpener in the meanwhile (he is, however, writing from the country that had 25% of dead from COVID with only 4% of the global population, so maybe there is a clue in-there...)

Over here, I had to stop my RPG gaming due to losing my father to COVID, almost losing my mother to COVID, and having my girlfriend to undergo emergency surgery while COVID was raging in Lombardy's hospitals - all in the space of one month (maybe this is the reason why I still get a bit testy when I hear from some idiots). During summer we opened up, so we played "Mythos" (basically "Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective", but centered on Arkham and Lovecraft, with Professor Armitage standing in for Sherlock). While it is not an RPG, it has a 8 "cases" campaign and a narrative structure that really makes Arkham and its citizens to come alive. It was a great experience.

This led me to put together "Mythos: Origins", a CoC 7E campaign in the same setting that winds the clock back to 1920 and has the players running real investigators (in "Mythos" you are basically yourself). Simple and cool! We met four times before the new - and current - restrictions hit. I know that a couple of my players are tele-adventuring but I'm not interested in this kind of experience. To me RPGs are the smell of pencils, the thunder of dice on the table, beer and the fellowship.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Ghostmaker on March 12, 2021, 01:29:27 PM
We went virtual via Discord for a while, but we've started meeting in person again. Every Saturday.

Nobody has died. Nothing has caught on fire. No one has spontaneously polymorphed into an aboleth.

Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: lordmalachdrim on March 12, 2021, 01:51:25 PM
Our games were and are unaffected by the current state of the world. One group online (a player in another state made in person a bit difficult) and one group face to face every couple of weeks.

Only excitement was last summer when a pair of ticks hitched a ride home with me from work and scuttled across the table.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Samsquantch on March 12, 2021, 02:25:22 PM
No games for me since October middle, or maybe the beginning of November. Two in my group are still terrified of the virus (I had it almost a full year ago now and was very ill but I'm ok now). We were doing online via discord and World Anvil but that fell through too around then. I think the last FtF game was in August and we had two players online due to literally being on the opposite end of the country.

When I was in the military I was part of my regiment's NBCW Decon team so I knew from the start the masks were useless as there are so many vectors of infection that the masks don't address (in addition to not being fine enough to stop a virus anyhow) and I've seen people freak out due to fear and utter ignorance while having a t shirt over their noses. And don't get me started on the face shields... So many, many, sheep we live among... I got infected right around the time I had eye surgery so it was most likely at a hospital with everyone wearing masks anyhow.

The virus is real but it's certainly not the lethal killer they made it out to be unless you had preexisting conditions and comorbidities. And it certainly doesn't help having so many faulty test kits and testing methods being used either, nor having people dying in traffic accidents and having it blamed on covid.

This whole thing was a giant cluster fuck with people and governments capitalizing off of it any way they can for political and financial reasons. Fear is a powerful motivator and far too many took advantage of it.

I really want to get back to gaming again but I don't know when that will be.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on March 12, 2021, 02:28:31 PM
I guess I'm lucky that I had been running text-chat games since 2009 (and play by email since 1995!) so I was ok with doing more of that. IME trying to turn remote gaming into tabletop via video really sucks, but with just text + VTT it uses a different part of my brain, more a live PBEM/PBP. It's different from TTRPG gaming but it's a lot of fun. The social element is different & much reduced but for players who take to it the IC RP element can actually be greatly enhanced. Much easier to do eg romance over text! :D
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Ratman_tf on March 12, 2021, 02:33:44 PM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

So, how many of you have returned to gaming with your friends in reach of the pizza?

Not yet. Our governmental overlords have graciously relaxed some of the restrictions.

https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/inslee-announces-statewide-move-phase-3-recovery-plan-return-spectator-events-and-phase

My local gaming pub owner has posted hopeful stuff about gathering after the vaccine is widespread. A lot of my gaming circles are still locking down. No contact whatsoever.
So same old same old.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Ratman_tf on March 12, 2021, 02:36:55 PM
In person or online who gives a flying fuck what method is used as long as everyone is having fun. Gamers need to realize it's 2021 and how rpgs are being played is changing. Instead of being grognard and safekeeping  how about just about everyone having fun with their hobby.

Other people can play however they want. But playing "TT" online drives me up the wall, so I don't really do much of it.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Shasarak on March 12, 2021, 03:28:48 PM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

To be honest if you are not triple masking at this point then you just want to kill Granny.

We have a hybrid game running which makes it easier for the Usian player to attend regularly.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Mistwell on March 12, 2021, 03:39:15 PM
It will still be a few months I suspect before my group is ready for in person games again. Mostly because as the economy opens up in LA everyone's jobs are going to get hectic busy so they won't have the time to game in person yet. But I figure by mid-Summer or so we should be ready.

In the mean time, we have two online games one of which has always been online for 7 years now given most players moved to different states. I think we're going to see a more permanent uptick in online gaming in fact in general for the nation. A lot of people moved states during this last year but kept their games going online and I bet many of those games just stay online.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Mistwell on March 12, 2021, 03:47:42 PM
I knew from the start the masks were useless as there are so many vectors of infection that the masks don't address (in addition to not being fine enough to stop a virus anyhow) and I've seen people freak out due to fear and utter ignorance while having a t shirt over their noses. And don't get me started on the face shields... So many, many, sheep we live among... I got infected right around the time I had eye surgery so it was most likely at a hospital with everyone wearing masks anyhow.

On Facemasks during gaming:
Facemasks reduce the radius you spread the virus around yourself, because it's not a single particle which infects you but an issue of quantity. The higher quantity of virus you spread through your saliva, the higher the chance someone else gets it from you. The more of an object is in front of your nose and mouth able to absorb liquid coming from you, the lower the quantity of virus you spread to those around you. It was never meant to be a shield which blocks all vectors of infection to you. It's meant to be a reduction in you spreading it, with some more minor benefits to reducing the amount you can breath in as well.

Which means if you wear a facemask at your game table, you will reduce the likelihood you will infect your other gamers with the virus if you happen to have the virus and not know it. Similarly, if your fellow gamers have the virus and don't know it, them wearing a facemask will reduce the chance you will get it from them.

Plus, there are some RPG related facemasks. If you want me to make YOU one, I'd be happy to do so. In fact, I'd be happy to make a TheRPGSite facemask with a logo, if people were interested in that.

I could do something like this? Or better probably, since the mask itself in this picture is pretty meh:

(https://i.etsystatic.com/23989580/r/il/a04ed3/2552869978/il_794xN.2552869978_razl.jpg)

Our design is more similar to this (which I find to be a lot more comfortable, better fitting, and with adjustments on the nose and ears), so imagine this with a D20 or an TheRPGSite logo on it :)

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0071/3188/9728/products/CopyofGL_S21_SpringMask-web-95_R1.jpg)
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: trechriron on March 12, 2021, 03:54:05 PM
Since this is a political statement (and a fucking stupid belief rooted in wacko conspiracy theories) - I decline to answer the question.

Also, you're a tool.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: thedungeondelver on March 12, 2021, 04:08:12 PM
I play VTT because my players are in Oregon, Washington State, Colorado, California, Arizona, and Kansas.  Two of them are in the same state as me but as the balance of players are out of state, it wouldn't make sense for them to come here.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Brad on March 12, 2021, 04:57:35 PM
Since this is a political statement (and a fucking stupid belief rooted in wacko conspiracy theories) - I decline to answer the question.

Also, you're a tool.

And yet you directly answered the question with this response. Who is the more toolish, the tool or the tool who replies?

ANYWAY

I agree that "table-top" is barely table-top when you're using online instead of face-to-face. It's just not the same thing, no matter how many advancements have been made. I'm involved in two online games right now, but one is mostly due to all of us being spread out over the state, the other is because we play after the kids all go to bed so it's just easier than driving at home at midnight after some drinks. I'd prefer to just do f2f, but for now this works. Sorta. Whenever this fucking degree is over, and the kids actually sleep past 5AM which means I don't have to go to the gym at 3:30AM just to make sure I can get in a workout, then I am canning online play with anyone who lives in the same town.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Trinculoisdead on March 12, 2021, 05:40:42 PM
My group's last in-person session was in February 2020. I've been running games on Discord since then. In some ways I prefer them, but that could just be the players.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Cola on March 12, 2021, 05:56:08 PM
My pal bought fantasy grounds.  We are online for now but my minis and such are greatly missed.

I will say we have had fun doing what we think is safest for the vulnerable in our group.  The maps and virtual tokens have been actually effective despite my initial resistance.

We’re getting a bit older and are trying to ham up the roleplayinf more.  Our groups has a teenager, dude in 30s one in 40s and one pushing 60.

It’s been good overall but I miss being together.  We did a game in the garage with masks once but a lot of our coworkers got quite ill so we went virtual.

I think we are ready for in person soon.  Most of us in healthcare and law enforcement got the shots and are not as worried.

Frankly I don’t give a flying fuck if doorknob lickers think it’s a pussy move or not as some do.  I just go with my own best judgment.  I will be glad to put this behind me and will fully embrace heavy metal concerts, public beer swilling and in person gaming...I don’t regret the VTT really.  It has worked as a temporary fix and has made it easier for us to get together for more 2 hour sessions here and there.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Omega on March 12, 2021, 06:57:16 PM
I’ve never been down with masks and the people complying drops by the day here. Despite the signs, I can walk into just about any local restaurant maskless without comment from the staff.

While on the flip side we had a bunch of idiots demand to go to a restarunt with no masks and the ALL got it and died. One of our local gaming group got it and she was dead in 3 days. Family member of another is barely hanging onto life after getting this thing.

I hope everyone pretending this is a joke or sham, or are actively trying to spread it gets it and dies as horrifically as regular people do who never asked for this to be inflicted on them.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: lordmalachdrim on March 12, 2021, 07:21:13 PM
While on the flip side we had a bunch of idiots demand to go to a restarunt with no masks and the ALL got it and died. One of our local gaming group got it and she was dead in 3 days. Family member of another is barely hanging onto life after getting this thing.

I hope everyone pretending this is a joke or sham, or are actively trying to spread it gets it and dies as horrifically as regular people do who never asked for this to be inflicted on them.

Given the statistical improbability the above being accurate with this things mortality rate...Bullshit.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: bryce0lynch on March 12, 2021, 07:27:50 PM
It's an RPG forum, they could all have been 80 years old, overweight with diabetes.

Let ask Mr. Occam. Mr Occam, is it true?

"It is more likely that Omega is full of shit."

Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: thedungeondelver on March 12, 2021, 07:54:46 PM
I’ve never been down with masks and the people complying drops by the day here. Despite the signs, I can walk into just about any local restaurant maskless without comment from the staff.

While on the flip side we had a bunch of idiots demand to go to a restarunt with no masks and the ALL got it and died. One of our local gaming group got it and she was dead in 3 days. Family member of another is barely hanging onto life after getting this thing.

I hope everyone pretending this is a joke or sham, or are actively trying to spread it gets it and dies as horrifically as regular people do who never asked for this to be inflicted on them.

~Shhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit that didn't haaaaaaaaaaaaaaappen dot teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeext~
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Kyle Aaron on March 12, 2021, 08:08:10 PM
It's an RPG forum, they could all have been 80 years old, overweight with diabetes.
They could have been! At least the last two :)

I think the pandemic is going to be like Vietnam: everyone was in the front line, and what was it like? "You don't know, man, you weren't there!"

As the years go on the stories will grow taller.

I try to keep my tall stories for the game table.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: thedungeondelver on March 12, 2021, 08:16:58 PM
Although, y'know, if you wanted to run an Omega Man like RPG, this could be a great launching point for it.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Chris24601 on March 12, 2021, 08:22:50 PM
I hope everyone pretending this is a joke or sham, or are actively trying to spread it gets it and dies as horrifically as regular people do who never asked for this to be inflicted on them.
I’m sorry for your loss. I had COVID back in March of 2020. It felt like a bad flu that put me out of action for three days.

If it makes you feel better, I only shop, dine and game maskless with people who feel the way I do (i.e. 90+% of the general population in my area; general consensus is the toothless mask mandate will be rescinded by the Governor any day now) and, in the rare cases I’m asked to mask by a business (or have been asked to in the past), I do.

I’d say more, but that’s about as far as I can go without veering off-topic for this section of the forum.

Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Slipshot762 on March 12, 2021, 08:23:25 PM
No serious gaming but 3 of 5 met up for playtests of various sorts. Everybody on my ass about hammering out houserules and a setting and making miniature terrain but i'm taking my sweet time. Procrastination is my virtue.

All of us voluntarily limit contact with each other (its nice to have a reason to cite instead of just being rude and admitting that you do not feel like fooling with people today) and other people on the off chance that we might spread even a normal flu to the old folks, each of us have elders for whom we run errands to keep them out of grocery stores and walmarts and such.

Two of my players have now taken the johnson & johnson vaccine which is akin to the normal flu shot, just a dead strain thats supposed to build antibodies. Most of us are 35-50 in age. There has been no cops busting up gatherings in my area and people still gather, though usually outdoors in secluded rural areas.

Back at the beginning the sheriff did stop in and warn us at the shop about old folks and contact tracing; anytime you in there working old men love to stop in and sit there all day and watch you work, so for about a year we've kept it shut down, singular appointment only and the boys have been doing much of it at night with locked doors. Just drop your shit off and pick it up the next day. I admit i love telling people no, one at a time, i'll get to you when i can, hush, buy me liquor or touch my pecker and i'll bump you to the front.

None of us are afeared of the gay lil bat soup bug, but for the sake of the old farts, you don't wanna be the guy that accidentally infected them or to be perceived as such. Whether it is just a flu variant or an excuse to murder pensioners with ventilators to alleviate the states financial burden, it doesn't matter, better safe than sorry. Avoid contacts, avoid doctors, avoid people in general unless those people are bringing you money or sex.

Once everyone has taken their cuck vax we might go back to normal, but then again maybe not, because truth is we have enjoyed everything being shut down and contact being limited. The contacts you do have feel more productive, authentic, and less awkward than normal, much of the bullshit is cut out and people say what they mean and how they feel because there is no time to waffle and prevaricate and virtue signal and pretend to agree. Anyone not feeling well can skype the sessions, everyone else can show up and we'll play behind locked doors. By now everyone but me has had multiple negative tests for covid. My wife had the vax too, so far no sign of anything. Me, I still have not even been tested let alone vaxed, but I really only have contact with wife/kids, like 3 friends, and a handful of old folks who i run errands for so they don't risk standing in lines or crowds.

Its a welcome respite to not be rushed and crushed by everyone elses schedules but to instead work at your own pace and make them dance to your schedule instead, while potential income is greatly curtailed by this the state has been quite generous in helping to curtail the impact, the guard for example gave a bunch of MRE's to the food pantries and churches to hand out if anyone comes up short on grocery money. I ate a brick-burger that you boil and pork n beans in brick form. MRE's are like gourmet camping out.

I don't wear a mask unless the place i'm going wants you to wear one, and even then i do it to appease others, not because i want to or fear a virus. If it puts people at ease and saves me from being blamed for killing granny i'm good with it. I kinda like dressing like a ninja anyway.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: rocksfalleverybodydies on March 12, 2021, 11:59:32 PM
A sham would indicate that the issue does not exist.

Been in a discord game which has resulted in some of the best gaming I've had in a while.
Think I hit the roulette numbers on the DM and the players as everyone is engaged, shows up on time and we are all having a great time.  It's proving to be my highlight of the week.  During the pandemic, I prefer having the distance as I can have a beer and not worry about masks during the session.

Arguably, I feel having it online makes it easier for everyone to make the session and feel more at ease about the whole situation.  We had one of our players get hit with Covid but he seems to be doing ok.  If we were in an actual physical game group, we could not have continued.  Something to chew on.  As long as the enthusiasm of the group is there, as it is theatre of the mind, it really does not matter to me if the means are remote:  the game does not suffer.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Ratman_tf on March 13, 2021, 01:36:44 AM
A sham would indicate that the issue does not exist.

There's been a lot of political and professional posturing around the Covid situation. We've had some people say the whole thing is a fake. I think that's moon landing hoax territory.
But the 15 day lockdowns extended to literally a year now, people adding multiple masks like they're magical talismans that stack their power over the bad magic.
Perhaps the most dissapointing thing is how this really should have brought us all together, but illustrated how we are all divided and a pandemic is just an excuse to grab power and cast shade at the other tribe.

If there's any lesson from Coronavirus, it's that we are on our own, and fuck the other guy before he fucks you.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Reckall on March 13, 2021, 06:08:01 AM
I think the pandemic is going to be like Vietnam: everyone was in the front line, and what was it like? "You don't know, man, you weren't there!"

As the years go on the stories will grow taller.
I can assure you that when all of this is over the last thing I will want to do is to speak about it.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: jeff37923 on March 13, 2021, 08:51:48 AM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

So, how many of you have returned to gaming with your friends in reach of the pizza?

Meh. I ditched my Star Wars RPG group because they had a case of the terminal stupids and I stopped having fun. Otherwise, I have been writing, working (a lot, 20% essential worker raise), and getting married to a wonderful gamer girl who is now moving in (she has a lot books, I have a lot of books, our house is one continuous library complete with cats).

Currently the gang and I are discussing a road trip to the USS Razorback for a sleepover with gaming involved. Gaming, on a submarine, in cramped quarters, with booze - what could be better?
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Zalman on March 13, 2021, 10:28:31 AM
Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

Completely failed our gaming group as well. And my family. And friends. And apparently it skipped over the total death statistics as well, despite apparently causing the death of 25% of all gamers!

Also, great thread for really getting to know the other gamers on this site, well done.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: deathknight4044 on March 13, 2021, 10:58:21 AM
We've been gaming weekly and in person throughout the pandemic. The DMs wife is a nurse and got covid a few months ago, but was asymptomatic and we just skipped that week. Funnily enough he was around her and even slept in the same bed after the test came back positive and he never got it. Or if he did catch it he was asymptomatic as wel and didn't know.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: dkabq on March 13, 2021, 12:32:58 PM
I knew from the start the masks were useless as there are so many vectors of infection that the masks don't address (in addition to not being fine enough to stop a virus anyhow) and I've seen people freak out due to fear and utter ignorance while having a t shirt over their noses. And don't get me started on the face shields... So many, many, sheep we live among... I got infected right around the time I had eye surgery so it was most likely at a hospital with everyone wearing masks anyhow.

On Facemasks during gaming:
Facemasks reduce the radius you spread the virus around yourself, because it's not a single particle which infects you but an issue of quantity. The higher quantity of virus you spread through your saliva, the higher the chance someone else gets it from you. The more of an object is in front of your nose and mouth able to absorb liquid coming from you, the lower the quantity of virus you spread to those around you. It was never meant to be a shield which blocks all vectors of infection to you. It's meant to be a reduction in you spreading it, with some more minor benefits to reducing the amount you can breath in as well.

Which means if you wear a facemask at your game table, you will reduce the likelihood you will infect your other gamers with the virus if you happen to have the virus and not know it. Similarly, if your fellow gamers have the virus and don't know it, them wearing a facemask will reduce the chance you will get it from them.

Plus, there are some RPG related facemasks. If you want me to make YOU one, I'd be happy to do so. In fact, I'd be happy to make a TheRPGSite facemask with a logo, if people were interested in that.

I could do something like this? Or better probably, since the mask itself in this picture is pretty meh:



Our design is more similar to this (which I find to be a lot more comfortable, better fitting, and with adjustments on the nose and ears), so imagine this with a D20 or an TheRPGSite logo on it :)



Only if you are wearing a properly fitted and properly worn mask. Otherwise bypass of the filter material occurs, as the flow will preferentially go thought the bypass area instead of the filter material. And it doesn't take a lot of bypass area for most of the flow to divert.

As an example, my wife (works in a rehab hospital) would come home with bruises on her cheekbones from her N-95 mask, as that is how tight the "mask fitters" deemed it needed to be to provide the 95% efficiency. Ironically, she caught COVID anyway. And when wearing the surgical masks provided by my employer, in the cold, my glasses fog up; unless I sneeze or cough, the mask is effectively worthless.

Moreover, the effectiveness of the filter material matters. And while there are any number of studies out there on material filter effectiveness, the results are all over the place. Moreover, few, if any, perform multiple trials, consider the effects of cleaning the material, etc. that would need to be done to properly characterize filter effectiveness.

An example of this is that using radiation to "clean" N-95 masks reduces their effectiveness after about 5 cleanings (the radiation damages the material such that it becomes less electrostatic, which the primary aerosol deposition mechanism).

All that said, a mask will keep in most of the large particles from a cough or a sneeze, but leaves you with a mask full of snot and/or saliva. Considering that large aerosols gravitationally settle relatively quickly (on the order of minutes), its value is mainly limited to poorly-ventilated/close-packed quarters.

What is effective is distance and ventilation.

All this is why pre-COVID the CDC, WHO, etc. said that mask-wearing by the general public is not effective in controlling the spread of airborne viruses.

Another point of information. Pre-COVID, my wife had a choice to either get a flu shot or wear a mask during flu season. Interesting that now it is get the shot *and* wear a mask.



Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: dkabq on March 13, 2021, 12:49:55 PM
My group stopped FtF gaming in March 2020. Since then I have been running my game using FGU, with Google Meeting for audio. One player has a 91 year-old father-in-law and one (and his wife) just had a kid. So going virtual initially was prudent. However, as time has gone on, the one with the old father-in-law regularly came to my house for DoorDash lunches when they closed the restaurants. So I believe that now that what is keeping our game virtual is that the guys with kids can stay home, and it saves them the 20-40 minute travel time.

I like miniatures and terrain, so I do miss that. And I find it easier to do encounters on the fly FtF. But as it makes it easier for some of my players to play, and my brother (who lives across the country) is now playing in my game, we will likely stay virtual for the near-future.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Reckall on March 13, 2021, 01:37:32 PM
Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.
I guess that the virus was smarter than trying to kill one of his best allies  :D
Quote
Completely failed our gaming group as well. And my family. And friends. And apparently it skipped over the total death statistics as well, despite apparently causing the death of 25% of all gamers!
That's because 25% is a statistical percentage. What really mattered are the clusters. If you were caught in one it was like being in the middle of a storm. If you weren't, the percentage became much, much lower.

In my gaming group I was the only one to be ravaged. I lost my father to COVID. I almost lost my mother (one of them gave it to the other, evidently). I was tested but I was clean. My girlfriend hadn't COVID but her problem was misdiagnosed three times before I decided to call an ambulance seeing how sick she was, after a wasted week (she started to feel unwell two days after I lost my father BTW). To put things in context, as late as May going to the hospital was still the highway to get COVID. This put me in the position of having both my mother and my girlfriend hospitalised (and with my GF undergoing emergency surgery) after just losing my father, and having nothing to do except to wait for a phone call.

I guess you had to live in Lombardy during those terrible days to understand how bad and scary and bleak the situation was. Places like Bergamo were tomb cities. There is one thing that, I guess, will remain with me forever: every time I think back to those days I see them in darkness, like if everything was always happening during the night.

Anyway, my group was obviously sympathetic, but no one of them was hit by the pandemic (even if everyone knew someone who was). So, statistically one of us lost his father, one almost lost her mother and one had a very sick girlfriend. Factually, I guess I was the one who drew the unlucky straw.

I also came to the conclusion that there is no cure for cretins like the OP. A distant cousin of mine is a bigwig in Weston Hospital, Florida. She is a Gynaecologist but she was part of the "All hands on deck!" emergency when Florida was hit. She told me that what stunned her the most were these people, dying from COVID, with their bodies full of the virus, who pleaded "Please, look for another cause! COVID doesn't exists!"

And yet, somehow, I still find the ability inside me to be sad for them...
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Eirikrautha on March 13, 2021, 05:34:29 PM
While on the flip side we had a bunch of idiots demand to go to a restarunt with no masks and the ALL got it and died. One of our local gaming group got it and she was dead in 3 days. Family member of another is barely hanging onto life after getting this thing.

I hope everyone pretending this is a joke or sham, or are actively trying to spread it gets it and dies as horrifically as regular people do who never asked for this to be inflicted on them.

Given the statistical improbability the above being accurate with this things mortality rate...Bullshit.
And the waiter at the restaurant was... Albert Einstein!
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Eirikrautha on March 13, 2021, 05:39:42 PM
Haven't missed a beat.  Despite being in a hotspot, almost no one outside of the folks in the nursing homes here has died.  I've gamed once a week in person the whole time (in addition to playing ice hockey once a week ever since the rinks reopened... some guys on the team got it, after a few days they were back on the ice).  Most people around here recognize that the quality of life matters more than the quantity, so we're still going to live life to the fullest.  I could get killed in a car accident tomorrow (and have a greater chance of that happening), but I still drive every day...
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Kyle Aaron on March 13, 2021, 08:37:40 PM
I guess you had to live in Lombardy during those terrible days to understand how bad and scary and bleak the situation was. Places like Bergamo were tomb cities. There is one thing that, I guess, will remain with me forever: every time I think back to those days I see them in darkness, like if everything was always happening during the night.
You said you would not speak of this after it's over. I think you should.

I mean, don't become a storygamer and write an adventure module for it, let's not go too crazy. But do speak. You speak well.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Slipshot762 on March 13, 2021, 09:50:42 PM
anti-lock brake sensor on wifes car started wonking out today, just days after the vax, so i think its safe to conclude that the vax causes automobile break down or sensor interference. probably 5g nanites trying to borgify my shit. if you don't hear from me in the next 5 days send big tiddy beeches wif pizza, surround this land with holy symbols, and warn your children and grandchildren to never come here.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Mistwell on March 13, 2021, 09:53:15 PM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

So, how many of you have returned to gaming with your friends in reach of the pizza?

Meh. I ditched my Star Wars RPG group because they had a case of the terminal stupids and I stopped having fun. Otherwise, I have been writing, working (a lot, 20% essential worker raise), and getting married to a wonderful gamer girl who is now moving in (she has a lot books, I have a lot of books, our house is one continuous library complete with cats).

Currently the gang and I are discussing a road trip to the USS Razorback for a sleepover with gaming involved. Gaming, on a submarine, in cramped quarters, with booze - what could be better?

Wow Jeff, congratulations on getting married! That's awesome!

And yeah gaming on a submarine would be epic. If you do it, you gotta tell us the whole story here.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: jeff37923 on March 13, 2021, 10:46:05 PM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

So, how many of you have returned to gaming with your friends in reach of the pizza?

Meh. I ditched my Star Wars RPG group because they had a case of the terminal stupids and I stopped having fun. Otherwise, I have been writing, working (a lot, 20% essential worker raise), and getting married to a wonderful gamer girl who is now moving in (she has a lot books, I have a lot of books, our house is one continuous library complete with cats).

Currently the gang and I are discussing a road trip to the USS Razorback for a sleepover with gaming involved. Gaming, on a submarine, in cramped quarters, with booze - what could be better?

Wow Jeff, congratulations on getting married! That's awesome!

And yeah gaming on a submarine would be epic. If you do it, you gotta tell us the whole story here.

Thank you!

We're still getting it together for the submarine sleepover, but it is offered through the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum (link below).

http://aimmuseum.org/submarinesleepovers/ (http://aimmuseum.org/submarinesleepovers/)
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on March 14, 2021, 08:55:38 AM
My elderly aunt recently got very sick from Covid - mostly because she got badly dehydrated from fever and didn't go to hospital for that until it was an emergency. Dehydration from food poisoning fever/vomit/diarhorrea nearly killed me back ca 2001 so I could see it coming.  :( Her son, his wife and even their young daughter all got very sick too.

It's a weird disease, most people who get it barely notice, but you do get these really bad clusters. It doesn't behave much like flu at all. I don't agree with lockdowns or compulsory masks, the damage done by the reaction to Covid has far exceeded the destruction wrought by the disease itself - but that destruction is real, even if mortality figures are often inaccurate. The best guide is the elevated all-cause mortality data, which is not susceptible to mis-recording non Covid deaths as Covid. It does show noticeable spikes in several countries, mostly around March-April 2020.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Reckall on March 14, 2021, 10:19:52 AM
The best guide is the elevated all-cause mortality data, which is not susceptible to mis-recording non Covid deaths as Covid. It does show noticeable spikes in several countries, mostly around March-April 2020.
I earlier mentioned the town of Bergamo and its surroundings. The local newspaper usually prints a page of obituaries every day. At the height of the pandemic they were printing ten pages of obituaries every day (https://tinyurl.com/u74u3v4s). That notion alone sobered up a lot of people who were babbling about "just a bad flu".

Coffins were stacked everywhere inside the hospitals. At night the Army vehicles collected the dead and brought them to the crematory (this is still today one of the most enduring images from the pandemic https://tinyurl.com/3xvrt59p). Relatives got a ticket with a number. After a week you got a phone call and you could go to collect the urn with the ashes. Of course any bureaucratic error meant that you ended up with someone else's ashes - but you will never know.

And yet no other region or city in Italy was as ravaged as Bergamo was. Why this happened is still a mystery. Was Bergamo hit before anyone else and so no one knew about prevention? Was there a genetic factor at work? Here in Milan, after seeing what was happening only half-an hour away by car, they built a COVID hospital wing from the ground up in a week. It remained (and still is) mostly empty. We Milanese were hit hard but we managed (even if barely). I guess that how this virus managed to be so unpredictable will be the subject of studies for years.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Pat on March 14, 2021, 10:53:21 AM
And yet no other region or city in Italy was as ravaged as Bergamo was. Why this happened is still a mystery. Was Bergamo hit before anyone else and so no one knew about prevention? Was there a genetic factor at work? Here in Milan, after seeing what was happening only half-an hour away by car, they built a COVID hospital wing from the ground up in a week. It remained (and still is) mostly empty. We Milanese were hit hard but we managed (even if barely). I guess that how this virus managed to be so unpredictable will be the subject of studies for years.
Thanks for the summary. If anything this pandemic has shown how little we really know about diseases when they first appear and how long it takes to get a handle on them, and covid-19 is a particularly weird example. It seems to spread how it wants to spread, regardless of what we do. I think the biggest failure of public health during this pandemic is the failure to convey that uncertainty. People wanted clear answers, and public health provided them, even when that was exactly the wrong thing to do. So we ended up with a cadre of people demanding everyone else follow the Science!, without realizing the (lowercase) science is lacking or at best highly ambiguous, and that led to a counter-reaction and another group that's essentially ignoring the pandemic. Which of course hardened along partisan lines because everything these days has to be made political.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Mistwell on March 14, 2021, 01:00:26 PM
Guys, I am enjoying the discussion (particularly this stuff about Italy, and the science about the virus). But Pundit is going to come down like the wraith of God pretty soon I suspect if we don't get this puppy back on the gaming aspect of things pronto. I don't want to see anyone smashed because they got caught up in the conversation.

So, are you guys still gaming behind computer screens?
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Pat on March 14, 2021, 03:02:33 PM
Guys, I am enjoying the discussion (particularly this stuff about Italy, and the science about the virus). But Pundit is going to come down like the wraith of God pretty soon I suspect if we don't get this puppy back on the gaming aspect of things pronto. I don't want to see anyone smashed because they got caught up in the conversation.

So, are you guys still gaming behind computer screens?
True. At least for me, one disadvantage of the new forum software is the "unread posts" makes it really easy to find new posts, while overlooking what forum they're in, so I find conversations tend to bleed back and forth.

One thing I'd be curious about is how many different types of online gaming people use. The play by post forums here seem fairly dead (based on the unread posts metric), are they more popular elsewhere? A lot of discussion is on the various online tabletops, are there other options? And for face to face, how to connect now that game shops are shutdown or out of business?
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on March 14, 2021, 03:20:04 PM
One thing I'd be curious about is how many different types of online gaming people use. The play by post forums here seem fairly dead (based on the unread posts metric), are they more popular elsewhere? A lot of discussion is on the various online tabletops, are there other options? And for face to face, how to connect now that game shops are shutdown or out of business?

I've got two weekly Roll20 groups and one PBP on Dragonsfoot running - they're all in the same campaign setting though, and interact/impact on each other. Plus I use the 5e D&D Roll20 VTT for screenshots to post to the 1e AD&D PBP. I think VTT is vastly more popular than PBP. And unlike me most people are using voice & often video (typically via Discord) to play remotely, which I'm not keen on. I find online play by text has its own benefits whereas w video it's a v poor version of tabletop.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Eirikrautha on March 14, 2021, 03:28:48 PM
One thing I'd be curious about is how many different types of online gaming people use. The play by post forums here seem fairly dead (based on the unread posts metric), are they more popular elsewhere? A lot of discussion is on the various online tabletops, are there other options? And for face to face, how to connect now that game shops are shutdown or out of business?
Roll20 (thought we're looking to switch to FoundryVTT soon) and Skype for the remote players.  The only real issues are the difficulty hearing everyone when they talk at once and the over-reliance on pretty, third-party maps.  Otherwise, the game is pretty close to a live RPG...
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Mistwell on March 14, 2021, 04:45:35 PM
We've been doing Roll20 for about 7 years now but one change i've noticed recently with one of my groups is a long text chain between sessions each week. Some of it is role playing, and some of it tactical discussions for how to deal with a challenge which is part role play and part just hashing out ideas as players. It's really added a lot to our sessions, and is similar to play-by-post but with a different tone.

For example, that group is currently 2nd level, and we're 250' up a narrow tower. We killed some flying creature baddies in a room (in a tough battle), and now we know there are more even more powerful ones above us on the top of the tower. So we were trying to figure out how we could win that battle, and how we can scout it first, and whether we should just bail and return another day.

That conversation lasted all week, we multiple posts from most of the players every day. And we managed to come up with a scouting plan, and a tentative battle plan if we went into battle, and also some tentative plans to bail depending on how the scouting mission went.

That was hugely fun, and pretty well simulated what our PCs would have done in that room hanging out for the 45 minutes we were there trying to decide what to do next. But it's likely a conversation that would not have happened much during the Roll20 portion of the game because we just don't have an extra 45 minutes in real time to discuss a single possible battle like that most sessions. But during the week, we can all spare 5 minutes here and there.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on March 14, 2021, 05:04:46 PM
One of my Roll20 groups does a lot of active inter-session play whenever a session ends with downtime - I think 5/7 of them are active on the message board. It can add a lot to the game.

In the other group only 1 person was interested, they are more casuals.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Spinachcat on March 14, 2021, 10:43:20 PM
Also, great thread for really getting to know the other gamers on this site, well done.

That was the objective!

Most of our gaming crew still believe gamers as a whole are a smarter, savvier and more independent bunch. Yes, I have endeavored to disabuse them of this notion. I also suffered from that same delusion pre-internet, but that's long cured after a decade of increasingly laughably idiocy overtaking our hobby like "RPGs are unsafe", "orcs are black people", "dungeon wheelchairs", etc.

None of my crew spend time on RPG forums so I'm regularly accused of making up stuff like "WotC put content warnings on TSR PDFs". I assumed most of this forum were "gaming" behind screens,  but this thread was to ensure I had proof.

I particularly enjoyed the crying in fauci responses, but it was also very nice to hear not everyone has forgotten that math and science works and has chosen to live as free men in a world of broken slaves. 
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Shasarak on March 14, 2021, 10:46:16 PM
Most of our gaming crew still believe gamers as a whole are a smarter, savvier and more independent bunch. Yes, I have endeavored to disabuse them of this notion. I also suffered from that same delusion pre-internet, but that's long cured after a decade of increasingly laughably idiocy overtaking our hobby like "RPGs are unsafe", "orcs are black people", "dungeon wheelchairs", etc.

Dungeon wheelchairs are pretty old school if your DM uses the critical hit tables.

Ah, Critical Hit tables.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Shawn Driscoll on March 15, 2021, 01:05:40 AM
Or have you graduated to double-masking at a table? Maybe your group is excitedly planning a campaign, but only after everyone gets the experimental vax and an anal swab.

Our group tried killing everybody we know with the CoronaChan, but after a year of gaming as usual, sadly I must report a total lack of fatalities. Alas, the best we could do was a couple people got the sniffles.  O Chinese bat soup, how thou hath failed us.

So, how many of you have returned to gaming with your friends in reach of the pizza?

The mitigated masquerade never effected our gaming because we were already role-playing online years before there was a mandate.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Brad on March 15, 2021, 09:18:19 PM
I particularly enjoyed the crying in fauci responses, but it was also very nice to hear not everyone has forgotten that math and science works and has chosen to live as free men in a world of broken slaves.

What's particularly amazing to me is that some people who are such staunch "FOLLOW THE SCIENCE" types are so fucking anti-science it's not even funny. Confirmation bias? Surely you jest! I am just listening to the experts!
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Kyle Aaron on March 15, 2021, 09:34:42 PM
What's particularly amazing to me is that some people who are such staunch "FOLLOW THE SCIENCE" types are -
I don't believe in following the science. Follow the dice. The dice are always right.

I want an rpg with no explanatory text, no reasoning or justification for the way it does things, it's nothing but random charts. 96 saddle-stitched pages of random charts.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Reckall on March 16, 2021, 10:06:30 AM
I particularly enjoyed the crying in fauci responses, but it was also very nice to hear not everyone has forgotten that math and science works and has chosen to live as free men in a world of broken slaves.

What's particularly amazing to me is that some people who are such staunch "FOLLOW THE SCIENCE" types are so fucking anti-science it's not even funny. Confirmation bias? Surely you jest! I am just listening to the experts!

We all sane people know that every time an airplane takes off it is a toss-up if it will land safely or fall from the sky. Don't be fooled by mind-controlling propaganda: aerospace engineers are only a bunch of delusional people locked up in the nearest asylum.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Brad on March 16, 2021, 11:24:07 AM
We all sane people know that every time an airplane takes off it is a toss-up if it will land safely or fall from the sky. Don't be fooled by mind-controlling propaganda: aerospace engineers are only a bunch of delusional people locked up in the nearest asylum.

Imagine posting this and thinking it applies to masks...
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Reckall on March 16, 2021, 12:24:13 PM
We all sane people know that every time an airplane takes off it is a toss-up if it will land safely or fall from the sky. Don't be fooled by mind-controlling propaganda: aerospace engineers are only a bunch of delusional people locked up in the nearest asylum.

Imagine posting this and thinking it applies to masks...

(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1f/82/83/1f82831715bd9e555d5a46a4b257c4ca.jpg)
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Samsquantch on March 16, 2021, 01:02:38 PM
I knew from the start the masks were useless as there are so many vectors of infection that the masks don't address (in addition to not being fine enough to stop a virus anyhow) and I've seen people freak out due to fear and utter ignorance while having a t shirt over their noses. And don't get me started on the face shields... So many, many, sheep we live among... I got infected right around the time I had eye surgery so it was most likely at a hospital with everyone wearing masks anyhow.

On Facemasks during gaming:
Facemasks reduce the radius you spread the virus around yourself, because it's not a single particle which infects you but an issue of quantity. The higher quantity of virus you spread through your saliva, the higher the chance someone else gets it from you. The more of an object is in front of your nose and mouth able to absorb liquid coming from you, the lower the quantity of virus you spread to those around you. It was never meant to be a shield which blocks all vectors of infection to you. It's meant to be a reduction in you spreading it, with some more minor benefits to reducing the amount you can breath in as well.

Which means if you wear a facemask at your game table, you will reduce the likelihood you will infect your other gamers with the virus if you happen to have the virus and not know it. Similarly, if your fellow gamers have the virus and don't know it, them wearing a facemask will reduce the chance you will get it from them.

Plus, there are some RPG related facemasks. If you want me to make YOU one, I'd be happy to do so. In fact, I'd be happy to make a TheRPGSite facemask with a logo, if people were interested in that.

I could do something like this? Or better probably, since the mask itself in this picture is pretty meh:

(https://i.etsystatic.com/23989580/r/il/a04ed3/2552869978/il_794xN.2552869978_razl.jpg)

Our design is more similar to this (which I find to be a lot more comfortable, better fitting, and with adjustments on the nose and ears), so imagine this with a D20 or an TheRPGSite logo on it :)

(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0071/3188/9728/products/CopyofGL_S21_SpringMask-web-95_R1.jpg)

First off, the following rant is not directed solely to you Mistwell nor is it meant to be an attack.

I am aware how proper masks work clinically and I should have added that the vast majority of people I see in real life and on video do not wear them even remotely as intended. Having your nose hanging out, the mask on your chin, no pinch and the bridge of your nose, or a t-shirt or sheet of clear plastic over your face is ludicrous. For surgery for instance if you touch your face while wearing your mask the mask is now contaminated and you need a new one. If this virus is as deadly to healthy as they make it out to be then stricter mask protocols apply just like in a surgery suite.

Same deal in bio-warfare environment. You touch your mask/gasmask like when eating or drinking, even with drinking tubes, you decon before and after the process. Half assed measures to safety protocols do more damage than good because it creates a false sense of security and leads to complacency. It's like continuing to drive drunk because you have never had an accident or been pulled over so therefore there's no problem. To me it's like waving your loaded weapon around without regard to where the barrel is pointing and it drives me nuts. And you don't normally go around wearing your NBCW gear in top high (all gear worn) without an actual need to.

If there's an outbreak in your area then take precautions. if you have pre-existing respiratory conditions then take precautions. If you are obese or have other issues cited as comorbidities then take precautions as well. The point is to do it properly or you may as well not do it at all.


Also, that D20 mask is pretty cool. Let's chat.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Samsquantch on March 16, 2021, 01:17:07 PM
To put things in context, as late as May going to the hospital was still the highway to get COVID.

Exactly, and that's where I caught it. And I am sorry for your loss. My mom had half a lung removed due to cancer. I made sure she took every precaution she could because of that and because she's almost 80.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Samsquantch on March 16, 2021, 01:34:52 PM
Although, y'know, if you wanted to run an Omega Man like RPG, this could be a great launching point for it.

That's an excellent idea!
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Krugus on March 16, 2021, 02:05:51 PM
We took a break for a few months and went right back to playing like we always do after our break.   Its a friends and family group that have been together for 30+ years.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Slipshot762 on March 17, 2021, 11:06:08 AM
Actually went to walmart yesterday, only about half the people were masked, discovered walmart sells polyhedral dice, got 3 sets for 7 bucks. We wore masks because I had thought it was required to enter but it seems that is no longer the case. Bought a kick ass varnished walking stick too for 15 bucks, i have several but this is like quarter staff quality and armpit height with a wrist strap and rubber stopper on the end, very thick and heavy, might modify it further and make it gandalf like, i'm into resin craft and have severl molds, maybe adorn it with blue-purple glitter dolphins. Bought some styrofoam balls paper clips and beads to make a beholder mini out of, as per this vid:


Saw a lot of adults maskless but their kids were masked, that checks out with the local mindset we have "yeah i'm boned but no reason to bone the youngins" sort of mindset.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Jame Rowe on March 25, 2021, 08:44:00 PM
I'm doing it by computer for a couple of my games.
One is because the guy who runs it asked me to - and pandemic or not, I'll happily respect my crew's wishes, because that's how we keep the group.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Wiseblood on March 25, 2021, 11:30:30 PM
The pandemic hit we took a brief break to find out what was what. When lies and propaganda started flying around we resumed FTF at that time.

We figured, if you gotta pad your numbers, your numbers are weak.

Everything that catches the fancy of corporate entertainers and activists only information that serves an agenda is promoted. Information that runs counter to the agenda is discredited and maligned if it can’t be suppressed.

I have an anti media bias. I figured out the game in the late 1990’s. I don’t know if I got better at seeing through the bullshit or they got stupid. I figure it’s the latter.

I don’t wear masks Except to get into establishments then it comes off. None of my group have gotten anything to my knowledge. Oh wait, food poisoning a few times. I guess some establishments are lax on hygiene when the public can’t watch.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Nobby-W on April 07, 2021, 08:13:42 PM
The best guide is the elevated all-cause mortality data, which is not susceptible to mis-recording non Covid deaths as Covid. It does show noticeable spikes in several countries, mostly around March-April 2020.
I earlier mentioned the town of Bergamo and its surroundings. The local newspaper usually prints a page of obituaries every day. At the height of the pandemic they were printing ten pages of obituaries every day (https://tinyurl.com/u74u3v4s). That notion alone sobered up a lot of people who were babbling about "just a bad flu".

Coffins were stacked everywhere inside the hospitals. At night the Army vehicles collected the dead and brought them to the crematory (this is still today one of the most enduring images from the pandemic https://tinyurl.com/3xvrt59p). Relatives got a ticket with a number. After a week you got a phone call and you could go to collect the urn with the ashes. Of course any bureaucratic error meant that you ended up with someone else's ashes - but you will never know.

And yet no other region or city in Italy was as ravaged as Bergamo was. Why this happened is still a mystery. Was Bergamo hit before anyone else and so no one knew about prevention? Was there a genetic factor at work? Here in Milan, after seeing what was happening only half-an hour away by car, they built a COVID hospital wing from the ground up in a week. It remained (and still is) mostly empty. We Milanese were hit hard but we managed (even if barely). I guess that how this virus managed to be so unpredictable will be the subject of studies for years.
Bergamo is a pretty town as well, with its old medieval-era walled town, and its funny local accent with all the glottals.  Some years ago I used to holiday in the area on a semi-regular basis (my ex used to play bridge with a chap who lives in Lecco) and fly through Orio al Serio. 

To give an idea how badly Lombardia got hit, the region has the highest per-capita number of doctors and medical professionals of anywhere in the world.  Something like 40% of Italy's GDP is centred around Lombardia; the majority of Italy's GDP comes out of the Po Valley and surrounding area.  Lombardia is wealthy, industrialised and highly developed; it has some of the best medical infrastructure on the planet - but was completely overloaded by the rate of COVID cases in the first wave.

I got COVID around the end of last year - fortunately asymptomatic as I am in a cohort with elevated mortality risk if I did get symptoms and I've bubbled up to the top of the NHS's priorities and had the first of two COVID shots a few weeks ago. 

My neighbour's mother in Brazil just died from COVID.  Someone on another forum I have an account on is a doctor there and described his experiences quite graphically a few days ago.

There's a joke about Stanley Kubrick that goes something to the effect that if he was asked to fake the moon landing he would have insisted on flying to the moon to do location shots there for authenticity.  The three-ring circus COVID has created is far too big to be hoax.  I can't look at this thread as anything but a graphic demonstration of the pathology behind conspiracy theorists.  It's quite sad really.

My IRL game moved online about a year ago and has worked fine on Roll20.



Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on April 08, 2021, 02:07:48 AM
To give an idea how badly Lombardia got hit, the region has the highest per-capita number of doctors and medical professionals of anywhere in the world.  Something like 40% of Italy's GDP is centred around Lombardia; the majority of Italy's GDP comes out of the Po Valley and surrounding area.  Lombardia is wealthy, industrialised and highly developed; it has some of the best medical infrastructure on the planet - but was completely overloaded by the rate of COVID cases in the first wave.

I get the impression that early on medical intervention tended to spike the death rates - bringing victims to hospitals, and putting victims on ventilators, both associated with higher mortality rates. More medicine often meant more death.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: This Guy on April 09, 2021, 01:57:17 AM
I haven't gamed at a live table for years even before the coof because god damn are live games shit. Yes, yours too. Play-by-post with half-decent prose or fuck off.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Kyle Aaron on April 09, 2021, 05:33:36 AM
I haven't gamed at a live table for years even before the coof because god damn are live games shit.
How hath you been offended, oh lord?
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: S'mon on April 09, 2021, 06:04:34 AM
Starting to think about emerging from hibernation & restart tabletop gaming once 6 people allowed indoors from mid May, hopefully.  Hard to decide whether to restart games stopped by Covid or start new game. Have asked players what they think but no response yet, they probably need me to make their mind up as usual. :)
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: This Guy on April 09, 2021, 10:54:50 AM
I haven't gamed at a live table for years even before the coof because god damn are live games shit.
How hath you been offended, oh lord?

The physical presence of other players busts my immersion and the separation of IC and OOC into different channels means I can ignore all the goofy memeing. And I am free of looking at the average gamer face.
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: Pat on April 09, 2021, 12:33:34 PM
The physical presence of other players busts my immersion and the separation of IC and OOC into different channels means I can ignore all the goofy memeing. And I am free of looking at the average gamer face.
The best argument in favor of mask mandates!
Title: Re: Shamdemic year 2 begins, you clowns still gaming from behind computer screens?
Post by: This Guy on April 09, 2021, 12:58:48 PM
The physical presence of other players busts my immersion and the separation of IC and OOC into different channels means I can ignore all the goofy memeing. And I am free of looking at the average gamer face.
The best argument in favor of mask mandates!

Imagine a world free of bloatees.