#DDPaDay 19-24 out of 31

Alright...the month is wrapping up, so I'm sad to say that I'm not going to pull off the no-gluten/no-dairy in any significant way this month. :( I am however elated to say that we're only seven days outside of November when I can try that half of the experiment again. I can also state emphatically that I have more than stuck to the beginner program for DDPY as far as the exercising goes. I'm probably one of the more bendy fat guys you're likely to meet, but unfortunately still a fat guy at the moment.

One of the more challenging aspects of working and living in China is that I'm doin' a whole lot of the former and not nearly enough of the latter. I haven't taken a day off from DDPY since the last entry and at the very least I do the "wake up" and "energy" and/or "fat burner". "Red Hot Core" came in last week and the first "Below the Belt" comes in tomorrow. I also work the free on YouTube "Sweating and Swearing" whenever I can. You may notice that I have deviated from my usual format and have gone to an even looser summary of my exploits. This is only because my internet service is sporadic at best and it happens to be kickin' right now, but I don't have my work out calendar near me. I write each day exactly what I do, but I can't always update it.

Goals:

Get the DDPY App and Use it--should be doable by November as I am setting up a bank account that has a joint American branch. As it stands now I'm using the free trial.

Get Heart Rate Monitor--I'm probably going with the Apple Watch because it would synch with all my other devices

Detail the Food Journal--As much as I hate to, I have to write it down somewhere. Times like right now when I've let my regular journal slip result in my not remembering my foul-ups, fumbles and even the occasional successes.

So, next week my wife will be out of China to celebrate her big 40 in the Philippines--her birthplace--and she'll be taking the daughter with her, so for nine days I will have a chance to REAALLYYY hit that diet without any outside influencers. I'll let you guys know if it gets better or worse.

#DDPaDay 16-18 out of 31

Now we've passed the halfway mark for the month. Unless I fall off the wagon, this will be the most successful two months of DDPY that I've had so far. Consistency is the key. Unfortunately, the diet is still kicking my ass and holding me back from what I should be, but as far as the workouts go? I think I've got this down.

Wednesday the 16th--

Workouts:

Wake Up
Energy
Fat Burner
Red Hot Core--"New" workout for me. I have tried this one before back in June, I've only just now caught up to where I was back then.

Diet Screw-Ups:
Beer and Chips--I didn't go crazy with either, but Wednesdays are my D&D nights now and although I can mostly avoid refreshments at the game...afterwords my mind is racing. I have to drink a beer to settle my mind down or I'll never get to sleep. This is a problem I'll need to address as drinking is a no-no.

Thursday the 17th--

It's a day off for beginners and my set day off due to the business from late the night before. For those elite few who are following me, this should show you that the beginner's work schedule gives many days off. Most of the time I just workout anyway, but Thurs. I do take for myself.

Diet Screw-Ups:
Beer--some will sit and drink a six pack at one go, while I only have the one beer with dinner, unfortunately, if I do that every day--which thankfully, I do not--I'd drink seven beers in a week instead of the six.

Friday the 18th--

Workouts:

Wake Up
Sweating and Swearing--The free live workout from a couple of weeks back on YouTube is getting a lot of play from me these days. I really want to get the DDPY APP which has lots of different workouts. So far I haven't been able to get it going in China in the form of payment. I've still got about half a month left of beginner before I'll try to change it up a bit in November.

The good thing is that--so long as I'm above ground--I can reset every month when it comes to the no-dairy/no-gluten thing. I really want to try it. I just have to discipline myself enough to ditch the beer and noodles...as always easier said than done.

I had a profound, almost zin-like thought, while doing my DDPY--I'm using the moves to get rid of my stomach yet my stomach is preventing me from doing the moves...

#DDPaDay 13-15 out of 31

Oct 15th #DDPaDay day 13/14/15 out of 31:

…and here we are very nearly into mid-October. I think this part of the year goes by fast  o matter where I live because it’s the Halloween season and I enjoy it a lot. Out here we have had a bit more acceptance of ghosts and goblins than back in the UAE, but at some point I hope my daughter gets to experience Halloween—and the other holidays back in the States. That being said, I don’t know what celebrations in the States even look like now myself. The last time I visited over any kind of holiday was Christmas of 2010 just after my father passed away. Hard to believe we’ll be coming up on the tenth Christmas without him. Some of his health problems—I’d probably say most of them in fact—came from being a lifetime smoker. He too was overweight like I am, but you have to think that the smoking played the greatest role in his problems. That said, living to age 65 isn’t exactly young, but there are those who live longer and those who live shorter lives. My mom—who is still with us—should be celebrating her 76th birthday this coming November. She too has lived an unhealthy lifestyle both in terms of smoking, eating habits…and probably a little more drinking that she lets on, but she’s got nearly elven years and counting on Dad. It goes to show that lifespan isn’t something that we can predict. From my end I do want to live as healthy a life as I can so that I can stick around for my family. I really don’t want my daughter to have to bury me any earlier than she has to.

October 13 workouts:

Wake Up
Warm UP
Energy
Diamond Dozen
Fat Burner

Diet:

I didn’t do anything bad on the remainder of yesterday. Beer is something of a no-no, but again it’s just not a major concern for me

Diet Screw-ups….

Today I have had cookies and I tried a chocolate bar because it was hot-pepper and grapefruit flavored (?) That seemed to be a strange combo so it was worth a try. Still it’s too much junk food and if I don’t straighten out and fly right, I’m going to need to try the experiment over again in November. My wife and daughter will travel to the Philippines last week of OCT/first week of NOV which could help or hinder my experiences. The bottom line is that to get the most out of DDPY or any other exercise program, the diet must be reigned in. Eating what I shouldn’t does not negate the results from the workouts, but you cannot out exercise a bad diet no matter who you are. The process of rebuilding the body is a slow one and each time I falter in my dieting resolve it pushes me back from my goal. Owning it, typing it, publishing it, even if it is repetitive, will hopefully build my resistance to the poor choices that I make all too often—-even re-reading these things next month will show just how much I screwed up and how much “just one bite” of this or that adds up in a month.

October 14th workouts:

Wake up
Energy

Fat Burner

It seems repetitive sometimes, but the beginner’s workout scheme doesn’t get into anything new until the middle of this week…

Diet:

No real screw-ups today. I ate at Subway Subs, so they aren’t exactly healthy. I’ve taken to eating any of my hamburgers without the buns—these are home cooked by the wife, if I fall and go to McDonald’s again, I usually eat bread and all. I eat big salads with steak in them whenever the wife feels like making them.

A challenge for my Monday’s is that I put in an absolutely insane day at work and will want to east something after I leave…I then almost immediately go to sleep—as I should given how late it is and how early the next day starts—which I’d really like to stop doing. 

October 15th workouts:

Wake Up
Fat Burner
Energy

Diet:

nothing bad so far, but I do have one meal left to eat today.

I uploaded some pics to the DDPY Ap, but I haven’t translated those to the blog yet. I’m pretty flexible for a fat guy. 

#DDPaDay Days 10-12 out of 31

Steady as she goes. One of the "interesting" things about living in China is the government's take on the internet. A lot of sites--including this one since it's Google based--are inaccessible by normal means, so we all use VPNs and everyone knows it. Sometimes--like the recent national day celebration--the VPNs will be blocked no matter which brand you use. Meaning that if they wanted to , the powers that be could shut down the whole show whenever they wanted. Fortunately for us, they apparently turn a blind eye to it most of the time. Obviously, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe it isn't cost effective to block us all or it's a pain in the ass to do it, but I like to think that our friends in the government are benevolent enough to treat their guests well in as much as they can. As to recent controversies--we really don't talk to them. I had one student notice that I was "acquiring" the Joker movie via ways and she told me that she'd like to see it, but probably would never be able to watch it out here due to violence concerns. Of course you can always go out to Hong Kong and watch whatever you want, but as you all know stuff is going on out there that is none of my business. On to DDPY talk...

Due to the aforementioned internet situation, it's almost impossible to report daily even if I was a constant blogger, so we'll probably just have recaps. I write something to myself everyday to keep my goals in the front of my mind even if I don't get to post. Currently I'm trying to purchase the DDPY App for my phone. I toured the place and it looks really good for the money. I also need to get the heart monitor of some kind and I think I'll be going with the Apple Watch because it's here and available. I also want to do a real weigh in as one means of progress and take pictures to share with you guys. No worries, until DDP comes out with a home electrolysis kit, I won't be subjecting anyone to the image of me shirtless. A Speedo top and regular shorts are not out of the question, but I do want them to be a little loose to show how far I can do certain positions. The small goal BTW is just to finish the beginner's program which I think I'm well on the way to doing. The large goal is to lose 46 pounds by age 46 which rolls around for me on January 29th. I think it's realistic, but only if I watch the diet problems.

Day 10

This is a scheduled day off in the beginners program. BTW if anybody is interested in trying it out for yourself, beginners level is almost easy enough for anybody to do, but if you are even deeper in trouble than I am, there are also workouts from bed, chair and standing only. When you see yourself doing these things the success you have will build up and up to more success.

Dietary Screw-ups:

Another one of those abomination hamburgers from McDonald's for lunch. I have to own it if I do it. I hope that I'm not done in by my love of pineapple on a hamburger, but I'm a sucker for it. The rest of the day was fine. 

Day 11

Workouts

Wakeup
Energy 
Fat Burner

Dietary Screw-ups:

A combo meal from Subway subs which included chips for lunch--a small victory, I chose water over soda

Midnight snacking...cookies...and I was watching AEW at the time, so I should have known better than to go beyond my boundaries when the very show that DDP is associated with is running. 

Day 12

Workouts

Wake up
Sweating and Swearing (free workout from YouTube)

It's still too early to call any screw-ups yet. If I have any, I'll at least own up to them. Also, cool that I got a reply from DDPY on Twitter. 

A long one today, but I don't want to close without speaking about some more upcoming challenges...

I have been recruited by and joined up with a local RPG group, so my D&D habit is rearing its head again. I must be careful that it doesn't steal too much time and beware of snacks and alcohol which seems to come with the territory.

Today I have a kids' birthday party to attend. All that good stuff that I shouldn't eat will likely be present.  I'll be concentrating on my breathing today for sure.

Unless you are actively keeping track of your diet and the temptations that come your way, you may not realize how many opportunities you have to blow it. It seems like a birthday, holiday season, vacation, free sample, or other chance for good tasting food that is bad for you is around every corner.  Another quick aside, cutting the dairy--even though I love cheese, ice-cream, and milkshakes has been fairly easy. Cutting the carbs....damn near impossible....I love noodles and beef noodle is like the best and I have access to it every day. I'll keep fighting it though.

#DDPaDay Days 5-9 out of 31

I really am an untrustworthy narrator as far as disciplined blog entries go. If my workout calendar followed suit, I'd give up now, but as it stands I'm doing fine on the workouts--not so much on the diet.

Day 5

For beginners--I am in the second month of the two month beginner program--there are days off worked into the schedule. It happens that Saturday and Sunday were both days off this week. Since I was out on the town, I took advantage of that...but the food...I didn't own my boundaries and there's no excuse. 

Dietary Screw-ups:

McDonalds--an abominable double burger meal. Some fried chicken at a Chinese/Thai fusion place, Beef Skewers--which would be perfectly allowable

Day 6

Again off from DDPY, but I'd argue that with all the walking I put in that I pretty much did a workout in and of itself...Unfortunately, the food...

Dietary Screw-ups:

Lots of Italian food...spaghetti, bread, pizza, and a dessert...later, spare ribs and lots of sushi with a little fried rice--again going heavy on the protein this was actually fairly sensible for dinner...unfortunately I also had a beer with it which I really shouldn't at this point. 

Day 7

Terrible...too tired from the traveling I actually missed my DDPY as scheduled and to make matters worse...

Dietary Screw-ups:

Beef Noodle Soup--not bad at all actually...A second Abominable Mcdonald's double burger meal this time with  an ice-cream cone and a fried pie. This is when I call myself an idiot. All the working out goes down the toilet when you are stupid and the fact that I know better makes it worse. I finished off with a Spaghetti and meatball dinner from home and a beer to drink it down with. Thankfully the next day I got back on the wagon...

Day 8

Workouts:

Wake up
Energy
Fat Burner

No dietary screw ups yesterday...I didn't even drink the second beer yet. 

Day 9

Workouts:

Wake up
Energy 
Fat burner

No dietary screw ups yet, but I did have beef noodle soup for lunch again which isn't exactly what I'm looking for in the carb limiting experiment. Dairy is easy, the carbs are not. 

My biggest takeaways from the end of my vacation are that I should keep the detailed food journal no matter how tedious I find it, I should try to check in here every day; not just when I have time, but to make the time. I also need to take the pictures. It seems to help the people who do. 

#DDPaDay Days 3-4 out of 31

• Oct 4th #DDPaDay day 3 and 4/31:
  
  And just like that disaster struck on the evening of October the 2nd. I went out with the family to an area of China that we had not experienced yet, so food—and bad food at that—was in abundance. One doesn’t go into The Hello Kitty Cafe and expect to not eat ice-cream—especially when you have your daughter with you and she wants a sundae. I last went to one of these places around ten years ago in Taiwan. You can get diabetes just by walking in. On top of that I ate ramen soup at the Japanese place down the street and finished a bowl of rice from my daughter—she’s always making trouble for me. Then, I had a doughnut and some fried cheese. You have to stay out of the carnival lifestyle if you want to get ahead…no breathing exercises can save you if you head into a place like that. I may as well report that I also had a beer on top that. Fortunately, I don’t party like that every night or I’d never get ahead.
  
  The next day I got back on the wagon.  
  
  October 3 workouts:
  
  Wake Up
  Energy
  Diamond Dozen
  Fat Burner
  
  Diet:
  
  I stayed home after the disastrous night before. No shenanigans on October 3rd
  
  October 4th workouts:
  
  Wake Up
  Energy
  Fat Burner
  
  Diet:
  
  The day isn’t over yet. I probably have one more meal in me, but since I am staying home, I can control it.
  
  Tomorrow we’ll be going out again to the “big” city on my side of town—I’m sure there will be more temptations out there. I don’t need no stinkin’ Hello Kitty Cafe stops if I want to be successful.  

#DDPaDay Day 2/31

• Oct 2nd #DDPaDay day 2/31:
  
  As noted yesterday, there won’t be much to these blogs…at least not much planned and they are just as much for me as they are for my dozen followers. One thing DDP—and a lot of other motivational speakers say to be honest—is that if you write your goal down, you are a lot more likely to achieve it. There’s something about writing it down that makes you concentrate and focus on what you want to do. With food it’s especially true for me because by years of bad habits, I “forget” what I’m trying to accomplish. This and the breathing techniques that DDP teaches are what I think separates his program from a lot of the other ones I’ve tried.
  
  October 1 workouts:
  
  Wake Up
  Energy
  Diamond Dozen
  Fat Burner
  
  Diet:
  
  I really don’t like keeping a food diary as such, I find it too tedious, but I do want to list any questionable activities I engage in. For day one I didn’t eat or drink any of the no-nos, but I did eat too many mixed nuts while watching movies.
  
  October 2 workouts:
  
  Wake Up
  Sweating and Swearing—this was a recent live YouTube event that was like an hour long. Good stuff. Probably more intense than what I’m ready for, but I did it anyway.
  
  Diet:
  
  The day is far from over, but if there are any more goofs, I’ll talk about them tomorrow. Today my wife put cheese in my omelette—just from habit. I’m not the annoying type to say no or to eat around the cheese, so I ate it. On the plus side, it wasn’t very much and I could get away with it if I wasn’t experimenting with eating no dairy this month.
  
  While on that subject and in closing, I’m not going to turn down anything that may be offered to me throughout the month. One piece of candy or cake doesn’t hurt anything. I won’t be buying anything like that for myself though. 

#DDP_A_Day 1/31

• I’m not a very disciplined blogger—except for the month of August when I do one entry per day for RPG A Day. This month in October I want to follow that spirit and blog each day in what I’m calling DDP A Day.
  
  For my nearly one dozen followers, if you’ve been around, you know that I am overweight and almost every year I’ll start a campaign, but for reasons it falls apart before any tangible results are seen. One of the problems is that I am a teacher—and an overseas one at that. Each year I get several breaks and during those breaks I tend to eat too much and and exercise far too little. I’ve blown a year of progress in the two summer break months only to start again—usually around this time of year—and make progress until the winter break at which point I blow it again. Over and over this has been the cycle for around seven years at least.
  
  Why will this time be different? I think it will be different with DDP Yoga because I’ve seen results already and I’ve only been “ishing” it so far. I was doing great with the program from about April to June of this year—only working out not embracing the diet plan—but then we had to make the  big move  to China, so true to pattern I fell off the exercise program and back into the overeating program. My excuses this time may be legitimate, but excuses and reasons don’t change facts.
  
  China Month One: We’re finally settling down in China, although I’m afraid I’m in well over my head on the job, I’m once again able to exercise and only one month in I can see improvement. I’m also getting the benefit of China being more of a walking environment than the UAE and the USA have ever been. The humidity makes for a lot of sweat and I have to walk five flights of stairs at least once per workday in addition to generally walking around campus and staying on my feet in the classroom.
  
  The set up: Continue the DDP yoga beginner routine which I started last month.
  
  From today until Halloween I’ll be attempting to avoid the following:
  
  
• Sodas of all kinds
• Sweets of all kinds—fruit is permitted
• Fast Food—may make exceptions for “meat” but no bread or pasta
• No Gluten—see above with the no bread or pasta
• No Dairy—cheese and milk will be off until Halloween
  
  I will be reporting every day success or fail. I won’t list everything that I eat as it gets annoying—unless I blow it and then I’ll shamefully let the twelve of you know. The hope is that by writing something everyday—more than the checkmark on my workout calendar—will help me to stay focused. A lot of times I’ll stuff food in my mouth without even thinking about it or buy something that I shouldn’t eat when it would be easy to avoid it if it weren’t in the house. 

Challenges: Portion control. On DDP’s program you can have all the vegetables that you want. No limit…but that’s a trick because nobody wants vegetables. I’ll need to be careful with the meat even though it is allowed because you really can’t eat it to one’s hearts content—or discontent as the case may be. Also, preparation of food as it shouldn’t be fried and the sauces and dressings have to be moderated or else the salad will have more calories than a pizza. Fruit and fruit juice also has to be moderated because the natural sugar is still sugar. Being in China—and in fact maybe vacationing in HK over the next few days—where the noodles are so good may prove to be the downfall of the no gluten. In point of fact, I am only cutting the gluten to see if it makes me feel noticeably better. The “detox” seems to take thirty days to kick in. Then there’s my five year old. Now, I don’t want her getting fat like me, so I am planning to limit her exposure to a lot of the bad foods, but she’s still young. If she wants ice cream or McDonald’s, I’ll let her have it. Unfortunately, that tempts me. There’s already a Pizza Hut visit in the works for this Saturday. Fortunately, they serve steak and salad at the China Pizza Hut, so I should be okay. At least there’s a better chance of being okay here than there would have been on such a visit to the States…but that pizza do….

Full Disclosure: For purposes of monitoring this stuff over the next thirty days for real results I must point out that appearances to the contrary, I have been doing regular exercise off and on for seven years, and of late have just finished the first month of DDP Yoga beginner’s program—doing more than what was suggested. It should also be re-noted that the new Chinese lifestyle that I am adjusting to involves a lot more walking than the UAE or USA previously. So I’m not starting the experiment completely cold and my exercise program is not exclusively DDP Yoga—it’s just the only “intentional” exercise program that I’ll be doing. This one was a long one, but I’m sure the rest will be quite short. 

RPG a Day wrap up and beyond.

I had to end RPG A Day a bit earlier than I wanted and in fact won't be responding to the last two entries since too much time has passed. I enjoy writing about the hobby and reading the thoughts of my fellow gamers and GMs. Unfortunately, I was stricken without the internet for a bit as I moved to China and what's more is that the VPN connection is suspect at best. Not even sure if I'll be able to play this year at all. I am looking at a Discord group and I'd like to play on Roll 20, but I'm not sure that my connection will be consistent enough to play.

The job itself is better than the UAE was getting, but I'm in well over my head and I'm afraid that they are working us so much that there will be no way for me to keep up with it long-term. It wouldn't surprise me if I got put on probation and/or get released before the year is out. :( I'll keep plugging away and I won't leave on my own accord, but sometimes you just know things. It's too bad that I have better students--for the most part--but I'm having trouble on my own end. You just can't win...

On the positive note, I've gone back into DDP Yoga and it was working really good for me. That combined with sweating my arse off as I climb five flights of stairs to my office every day should finally allow me to lose the weight I always wanted. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways. 

RPG A Day 2019--August 29th--Evolve

Today's word is evolve. I have to be quick due to time constraints, but this prompt lends itself well to the entire RPG hobby. Back in the 70's the mainstream didn't know much about it. In the 80's they were big enough to become the cause of most of the problems of the teenage world and were a big feature of the Satanic Panic--D&D is most infamous in this regard, but I remember seeing 'Cyberpunk' on the list of evil before I even knew what Cyberpunk was--, in the 90's the whole thing was on the verge of collapsing and it became even more of a niche thing, the 00's--thanks to the open gaming license IMO--the market was a bit flooded with D20 material and now we're here to day in the 10's where RPGs are bigger in the mainstream than ever before: D&D 5th was/is ab ig deal and dare I say "cool", Virtual Table Tops, Streaming Games--Critical Role breaking Kickstarter Records--and of course self-publishing and Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites giving every Mike, Ken, and Gary with an idea for a decent RPG the legit chance to pull it off. I say the hobby has 'evolved' into something bigger than it ever has been.  This doesn't even address how the audience has grown to be a fairly inclusive group--I hate PC buzz words but there you go--no more is it a boys only club in their mom's basements. Everybody has discovered--at least for the moment--what we've known all along. RPGs are fun. 

RPG A Day 2019--August 28th--Love

I'm a day late on my current side of the world, but it's still the 28th of August in the homeland, so I'll go ahead on and address today's topic 'Love'.

When it comes to most of my RPG sessions and campaigns, love stories don't get too much play. Characters may be motivated by their love of their homes or to win the heart of a princess or something like that. However, I'll point out a couple of things I have seen or read about:

1. I have had characters get married or have all of their actions in fact be about gaining the love of someone or going all John Cena/Liam Neeson/Keanu Reeves and have to save their wives, kids or dogs or stuff out of love.

2. I may allow what might be considered misogynistic behavior nowadays to go on with the PCs and various tavern wenches and the like as tends to come up. It depends on what group is at the table and whether or not they get offended. "Love Making" scenes, nevertheless, are always PG-13 and such act happen off camera. When feelings aren't mutual between the PC and the NPC--and there have been times when that has happened--it's no longer "love" once it becomes a crime and there will always be a big brother/bouncer/law man around to put a stop to it--and me to check the alignment of the character. It's also weird because when we're all guys playing who's going to want to talk to each other about those kinds of shenanigans? Luckily, it's never happened at any game I've been at or run.

So, I guess that's all the love/romance/me too behavior you get in one of my games.

RPG A Day 2019--August 27th--Suspense

How do you keep a moron in suspense....?












How many of you are going to use that same dad joke...?


I like suspense in my games and most of the time it comes at the end when we have a cliff hanger. Hopefully, players will want to come back next session to see how it all turns out. The other way to make a game suspenseful is to stack the deck against the players. It's a hard thing to do nowadays because getting people to play together regularly is very difficult. Once a regular player character is created--and I don't care which system it is--it's pretty hard to kill them off. If you get the old TPK there's a good chance that's the last session for the campaign. So, it gets pretty suspenseful when a character--or the whole party--is on the verge of being wiped out and nobody knows for sure if fate--or the game master--is going to step in to keep hope alive.

Unfortunately, the way I get suspense from most of my Roll * 20 games is the moments from start time to 15 minutes after start time when I--and usually one other player, but not always the same one--are waiting around to see if anyone else will turn up. It's also suspenseful to see who's going to drop out of the campaign first. In defense of my flaky players, most of them would like to play, but then work gets in the way. I envision the suspense they feel as their schedule is being set up at work--will I play or won't I? I'm sure it's the same feeling I get when asking my wife's permission to head out to a game night.

RPG A Day 2019--August 26th--Idea

For this the 26th consecutive day of posting about my hobby 'ideas' about what to write about are in short supply. Having just completed my first day of school--no young hellions nor set schedule yet, but both I have been assured are on the way--I also have no idea if I'll be able to get into any game out here any time soon. My latest Roll*20 campaign--which ended and/or was put on hiatus with a whimper was scheduled to make a return this September. Now, with all the stuff I just saw on my plate, I'm not so sure. If you ever find yourself out this way, I can happily report that Roll*20 does at least work with a VPN connection.

Not every entry can be a winner and this one surely isn't, but what can you do when you're all out of ideas?

RPG A Day 2019--August 25th--Calamity

Here we are at day 25 already and the word for today is 'Calamity'. The first thing that popped into my mind with this prompt was 'Calamity' Jane. Thanks to Wikipedia I know that  the real-life Calamity Jane was a frontierswoman named Martha Jane Cannary who cared a lot for the sick and helpless out on the frontier. She famously appeared in Wild Bill Hickock's Wild West Show wherein she recalled how she got the nickname 'Calamity'. She said it was because of saving a famous General of that time from a 'calamity' involving an American Indian uprising--others said it was because when men tried to date her that they were 'courting Calamity'. Whatever the case may be the nickname is what I remember--that and the character of the same name from the original Deathrace 2000. So today I'm going to tell about some of my characters with memorable names and nicknames and explain the jokes--which are possible good for a mild chuckle to older people and most probably completely lost on the young people I generally play with.

Darville Frostbeard--a Mountain Dwarf D&D character who sold bootleg ale--of course comes from Smokey and the Bandit. The bandit's real name was Bo Darville--surely you knew that.

KiraKira--my Ryujin character from Ryuutama. The Ryujin is unique to Ryuutama. It is a character that the GM runs by design. The Ryuujin has three forms--an innocuous small form for which I chose a pixie marionette, a winged humanoid form, and a dragon form. KiraKira is the Japanese word for Glitter which was the name of the pixie character in the Kidd Video cartoon from the 80's.

Caladium Araceae--Speaking of pixies, D&D 4E had real rules for playing them, so of course I took advantage of that. Caladium is a poisonous plant from the family of Araceae. The plants themselves have interesting nicknames that I applied to the character on the one hand it can mean 'Angel Wings' but on the other hand it can mean 'Elephant Ears'. She took it as the former while her friends took it as the latter.

Syllan Blackleaf--Dungeons and Dragons Elf Ranger. The surname of course came from the anti-Dungeons and Dragons Jack Chic tract from the 1980's.

Gnissa Fumblebuck--so she's a gnome for starters and I went with the old Great Space Coaster "joke" featuring the puppet newscaster, Gary Gnu who used the cringe worthy tagline 'No Gnus is Good Gnews' every time I could come up with such a pun it got less and less punny. Fumblebuck was  also an obvious play on the suggested gnome gname--see not punny at all is it?--of Stumblebuck from the player's handbook. Gnissa had a pet rat named Baldric who was named for the character from the Black Adder TV show.  I knew nothing of famous fighter and his tiny rat sidekick at the time I created this character, but I find that I was doing a lot of the same schtick.

CoCo Lopez--Cyberpunk media character who goes by the handle COLO she was named after a drink mixer I used to stock all the time at the grocery store where I worked. She has a cousin who runs with a Nomad crew whose name was  Manuel Labor.

Amber "Spade" Spayed of the Gar Fields tangent of the Heath Cliff Clan--She's a 5E Tabaxi character. If you haven't looked into creating one I'll tell you they get a first name, surname, nickname and tells where they came from. I never had her announce all her names unless it was to annoy my friends. Everyone just called her "Spade". "Spayed" is like birth control for pets. Garfield and Heathcliff are famous orange comic-strip cats.

There are probably some more "good" ones that I've forgotten over the years, but surely I'll never forget these fine characters.   

RPG A Day 2019--August 24th--Triumph

What comes to my mind when I think of the word 'triumph'?  When it comes to entertainment--including RPGs--I think I'm a softy at heart because I want good to triumph over evil. This may be surprising given yesterday's entry and my love of dystopian settings and horror, but it's true. I'm going to spoil some old movies in this one. 

So is 'triumph' synonymous with a "happy ending"?...ultimately yes, but not necessarily the traditional old-fashioned 'Hollywood' ending. I think of the Rocky movies--and now the Creed ones which I also enjoy--and how most of the time 'triumph' didn't mean winning the fight in the ring. The victories in these movies--as heavy handed as they were sometimes--didn't come without loss. Most of the time the message of the Rocky/Creed films was 'going the distance'. The triumph didn't come from winning the title, but from getting up no matter how many times you get knocked down. Working hard and never giving up is a triumph whether you win or lose. 

Another great boxing film is 'Million Dollar Baby'. I don't give it as many repeat viewings as I do the Rocky/Creed movies because on the surface, it's such a downer. However, it's the kind of movie that sticks with you. Hillary Swank's character fought through adversity all the way until the end. Ultimately, the character didn't make it through the movie alive, but she stood up for herself and ended her life on her own terms. I'm not sure how much I agree with what the character did or the influence such actions may have on the viewer, but I still feel the character was triumphant in her spirt and once again stood up for what she thought was the right choice--although she had to pay the ultimate price for it. 

An example of an incredibly bad ending would be 'The Mist'. It was a perfectly serviceable--dare I say good--horror film wherein our protagonist was an honorable man who did his best to do what was right. Ultimately, in the face of what appeared to be a certain, horrible death for the man, his son, and his new found allies, the character makes a gut wrenching decision--mercy killing everyone via a bullet in the back of the head rather than letting the otherworldly monsters torture and eat them. Unfortunately, there wasn't a bullet left for our main character and he'd have to live with what he did for the rest of his life...In addition, about two seconds later the military shows up and kills the monsters. Had the man only waited, he would have saved his son and his friends. Instead he just has to lie there crying in the dirt. There isn't any triumph in an ending like that. The lead character here was a good man who deserved better. 

It's true that our final fates in the real world--if we live long enough and the Lord tarries--are going to be more akin to the downer endings of MDB and The Mist than they are the upbeat ones of the R/C movies. However, our fiction--books, movies and RPG games--can and should be better than the real world. I would hope that no GM gives their campaign a 'Mist' ending. It's memorable, but for the wrong reasons. An ending like that doesn't lift you up and doesn't give even a glimmer of hope. My advice is to let the characters triumph--some may have to sacrifice their very lives to do it--but at least let that hard choice mean something. 

  

RPG A Day--August 23rd--Surprise!

You may or may not be surprised when I say that Cyberpunk is my favorite genre of RPG when it comes down to it. I was pleasantly surprised when the video game Cyberpunk: 2077 by CD Project Red was announced and rekindled interest in the tabletop RPGs that inspired it namely--Cyberpunk (2013) and Cyberpunk 2020--we don't like to talk about Cyberpunk 3.0 A.KA. CP203X or "Barbie Punk"; let's just say decisions were made...mostly decisions by the players to keep playing CP2020 instead of the new edition, but I digress.

Although there is a lot of cross-over between fans of video games and table top RPGs, not everyone enjoys both, so ICYMI, the company CD Project Red is apparently a big deal because of the critically acclaimed Witcher video game among others. CP2077 has been in development for years--even in danger of becoming so-called "vaporware"--but things really started picking up over the past couple of years culminating with an appearance by Keanu Reeves at this year's E3 gaming trade show/convention. Reeves was revealed to be starring in the game as the infamous Johnny Silverhand--a favorite Rockerboy character from CP2020. Maybe even more importantly, a release date was finally announced for April of 2020. Of course with popularity like that Cyberpunk needed a new tabletop edition and since there will be a forty plus year gap between 203X and 2077 what better way to create this new edition than by setting it in those gap years. This is where Cyberpunk: Red comes in

Cyberpunk:Red takes place between 203X and 2077 detailing the rebuilding of Night City after a small nuke was detonated therein during the 4th corporate war. The fallout from the blast created "Red Skies" and although most of the fallout has diminished, during sunrise and sunset the entire sky again becomes a blistering red--thus the punks call this era, "The Time of the Red". As of this entry, only the beginners box called the jumpstart kit is out. Physical copies sold out at Gencon, but more will be on the way. Drive-thru of course has the PDF ready for download. I really like what it looks like so far, and even if I don't get to play, I love reading the lore.

When I think about the Cyberpunk RPG--remember the fiction of "Cyberpunk" does take place before the game and authors of such works are even mentioned in the game--I am very surprised about how many future events and technological achievements were successfully predicted. Almost every crazy thing in the games has either already happened or is currently in development. Stories about: chimeras, bionic limbs, implantable skill chips, fully functioning A.I., Self-driving vehicles, designer drugs, rabid media reporters and savage corporations sometimes read like they are ripped from today's headlines--er, newsfeeds--from a game created back in the late 1980's. Almost everything is spot-on...except one thing--no, not the nukes or astroids--I'm talking about smartphones and a wireless net.

In the CP "universe" there is still a reliance on paper products--FAX Machines and even the, then futuristic, "print on demand" Screamsheets--for example are still prevalent and relevant. Today in the real 2019 you almost never need a FAX and newspapers are going the way of fidget spinners. Old guys like me still love the physical media, and--to a certain extent--I supposed there will always be a niche market for such, but the kids these days...they don't want it. Almost EVERYTHING is digital and you're using your wireless smart phone to do it--no hacking needed.

I have said for years that I now live in a dystopian present and the fact that I love the CP genre so much is one of the reasons I'm able to cope without going into technostress. In just four days in China I've seen things...seen things you little people wouldn't believe. First of all, right off the plane you buy a Chinese SIM card, if you're smart. The card activates your number and gives you X amount of time including data. You'll download a multitude of apps, the most important of which is called WeChat. They are practically in a cashless society now with this WeChat--it's everywhere--and it's so easy to use. ATM we have cash because we just got here, but once I start getting a salary it will all be deposited electronically into my account. I won't even have a check stub unless I print one off. Almost everything is purchased using this app to scan QR codes--even if you want to buy a little toy from a gumball machine or use a massage chair--you gotta scan the code. Coins don't work. (I'm only being slightly facetious, you can probably find an old machine somewhere, but I haven't seen them) There are other 'pay' apps but WeChat is the big one. I know it's available in the States as well, but it certainly isn't the big deal it is out here. Next, you get the Chinese version of Uber in an app called DiDi this connects to your WeChat which is connected to your bank. I book cars without ever talking to the guys. If I did have to talk, I could use the Youdao Fanyiguan app like a universal translator. They have robots in the mall that can give you directions...they recognize your face and know you're standing right next to them. They don't know that I don't speak a lick of Chinese (yet) and they aren't compatible with the translation app--possibly a user problem from my end--but still. Now all of this stuff happened...and continues to happen...before we reached the actual year 2020. Can you imagine what might come around by the time "real" 2077 gets here? If technology continues to advance the way it has, it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of us are here to see what transpires first hand.

RPG A Day 2019--August 22nd--Lost

Hopefully, we all make exponential gains in our lives and continue--in as much as possible--to move onward and upward with one success building on top of another. As we become productive members of society, we then use our well-earned experience--and subsequent money--to help others along life's journey. Each and everyone of us prospering together toward bright futures--Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. People get in the doldrums and in ruts. Most of the time the changes that come around in life aren't going to be for the positive. If you live long enough, friends and even family move on. You grow up and leave your parents, you might have kids of your own...who suddenly grow up with kids--and problems all their own. Along the way we lose people here and there and that's probably the worst feeling in the world. Is it any wonder why we lose our creativity and imagination?

~This is the part as a Christian gamer--especially when the topic is 'lost'--where I'd be remiss if I didn't say there is joy to be had even in the mundane world and that you truly never lose anyone, as long as one knows the One who holds tomorrow...but that's probably not why you called~

I think that gaming--and other positive hobbies--helps us to get back some of what we've lost. I'm very blessed to live a life wherein I've been able to see the world, but many people just can't do it. Playing RPGs gives them a chance to explore. For some RPGs are an outlet for anxiety and plus, it gives them time to reconnect with their friends. Depending on how long the group has been together, they may be reliving their childhoods, and what's more, unlike the other forms of media where you are at the mercy of the director, the writer, or the programmer, a GM worth his salt is going to let his players have enough agency to be in control--or enough rope to hang themselves with at least. Computers and VR might get there one day, but at the moment RPGs are among a very short list of activities where you can truly flex your creativity in a group setting--as long as you have an active mind, there's no place you can't go.

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

George Bernard Shaw

RPG A Day 2019--August 21--Vast

There are so many things that pop into my head when I think about 'VAST', today's prompt for RPG A Day 2019.

I've touched on this before--way too many times in fact--but the first thing is the vast number of years that I've been playing RPGs in one way or another. I can't say an exact year, but I know it's over thirty years. If I look at the D&D cartoon as a starting point that puts us back to '83 and myself as a nine year old. I also read the Choose Your Own Adventure and Time Machine Books around the same time. If I had known that the adult me would still be playing, I might have tried to record an exact date for posterity. You know you are getting old when you are using dice that are older than the members in your gaming group.

In all those years, I have amassed a vast collection of products as well as dice. Over several moves throughout the years I've lost things and culled others. One thing is for sure, I'm always kicking myself somewhere down the line, wishing I'd have found a way to save my stuff.

The vast majority of games that I've played and run have been fantasy in the same line as Dungeons and Dragons. For some D&D and RPG are practically synonymous. The brand-name is more famous than the product. I find when I'm home in Georgia that all soft drinks are called Coke. That makes sense as the Coca-Cola company is right there and all, but surprisingly, in my travels throughout the world all facial tissue is called Kleenex. That's what you have to call brand saturation. The guys I teach often struggled with English, but they all knew Kleenex. When it comes to the RPG hobby, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. D&D--right or wrong--is the granddaddy of them all. When the vast majority of casual people think about RPGs--in those rare occasions when they do--they're thinking D&D. Cool for us, but some people don't like the fantasy setting, so they close themselves off to the entire hobby. If only they knew of the vast amounts of systems and settings that are out there, they could have a lot of fun.

RPG A Day 2019--August 20--Noble

For today's prompt we have the word 'noble'. From my hotel in China where I just arrived this morning I can only think of one thing.

There is one job that carries the label of the 'noblest profession'--it happens to be my very own vocation, teaching. I went through the trouble of looking up the phrase and why teaching got that nickname. The writer of the article says that because teachers touch all of the other professions--and even shape the world at times--that the role of an educator becomes a noble one. Teachers sacrifice better paying, less demanding careers in order to shape every other career. I can buy into that in some ways, but personally, I consider myself more of a sell-sword. I'm a lot like the COBRA character, 'Firefly' from the 80's version of G.I. Joe especially the part on his file card about making no guarantees and giving no refunds.

I believe a disproportionate number of teachers are into RPGs. Several schools have had RPG clubs and usually one or more teachers get involved. I've tried several times to get an RPG club going in my schools. In the UAE it worked in getting the teachers together, but I'm afraid my foreign students just can't get into it enough. They loved seeing the different dice and rolling here and there, but the storytelling and critical thinking elements--among the only reasons you can use to sell an RPG club--are the things they didn't care about. Truly they liked Roll playing over the Role playing...and it really wasn't too long before got bored of that too and started throwing the dice at each other. The UAE students, for the most part, really weren't academically inclined and the culture isn't a reading one.

RPGs take a lot of reading. I didn't do it for very long--one or two attempts--but the students from Taiwan wherein I started my noble career did a little better. It was ten years ago and I guess the zombie craze had only just started. We played a game of 'All Flesh Must Be Eaten' and every time one of the characters killed off a zombie, I gave the player a piece of candy. I think I contributed more to their risk for early onset diabetes than I contributed to their learning, but you can't blame a guy for trying. Now that I'm in China, it could be the year when I have a club that takes off. Tomorrow the word is 'Vast'.

RPG A Day 2019--August 19th--Scary

I haven't really played a "scary" RPG that effectively scared me. I've tried to get into it. I've run and played the Ravenloft setting for D&D and I had some ghost pirates/pirate ghosts in my 7th Sea campaign, but it just doesn't click with me very much. I enjoy it, but I'm not scared by it.

I can look back through my jangled 'Mandela Effect' affected memory to the 1980's when parents were scared of--or at least bothered by--Dungeons and Dragons specifically, if not RPGs in general. I never quite got that. The artwork was suspect, I suppose, and LARPing of any kind always comes with a risk, but unless someone was already deeply mentally disturbed, I just can't buy into RPGs as being something to fear.

What scares me then? Sometimes late at night--particularly if I've seen a very scary movie or listened to a very effective sermon--I can make myself scared. From time to time it can get bad enough that I won't have a good night's rest. When I see news reports from the States, especially anything that hurts kids, I feel scared for the state of the world. I am a Christian, so I'm never really overwhelmed by these fears, but I do need to leave my bedroom sometimes and pray for better days and nights.

In a few short hours, I'll be on that long-mentioned flight to China. I don't think anxious is the same as scared, but they're definitely cousins and I'm not expecting a good rest tonight.

Tomorrow--should I have the time and ability to check-in, the prompt will be 'noble'. 

RPG A Day 2019--August 18th--Plenty

The word for today is plenty.

I'd say I'm somewhat quick to let it be known of my vast gaming experience--especially in forums wherein I should be speaking to my fellow gamers. I'm not sure that it's a badge to be flaunted--all it means is that I'm old. Nevertheless, in over thirty years of gaming, I doubt that there has ever been a time when role-playing games and the people who play them have been as plentiful as they are now.

Back in my day...we had an FLGS somewhat close at hand, relatively speaking, and it's where my brother and I would buy all our comics and game supplies. It's worth a mention that they also sold hobby related toys--comics related, wrestling toys, horror etc.--that you didn't find so much at the regular shops. I had a love/hate relationship with the FLGS because of this. On the one hand, I could understand the shop having to charge so much for their toys because they were buying retail and then reselling through the shop. On the other hand, if the jerks didn't rush out to every Wal-Mart scooping up the toys from the shelves, regular kids like me could just pick them up in the wild for far cheaper. I digress, and thankfully, I don't think that practice carries over so much today because so much is available online.  The same is true of RPGs as almost always you can pick up a digital copy of a game system for relatively cheap...cheaper than cheap if you're crooked.

Living in the digital age has saved us from a lot of hassle. I wanted the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit that was available at Gen-Con this year, there was no way for me to go there no matter how much I might have wanted to. All copies sold out at the event with the promise that there will be more on the way--but what good does that do me? If we still lived in my day, the FLGS may have had a copy trickle in by Christmas time if I was lucky. If the product was deemed to be a niche item, I might have to battle the other guy in town that also wants it. I can only imagine the difficulty of getting anything like that shipped overseas back in the old days. Today, I went on Drive-Thru and had the same Kit as the convention goers the same week they did. The digital version will never "sell out" as long as the servers stay up. I can't get the physical items like the dice, but as 3-D printers get better and better, I could see a time when print on demand happens in comfort of one's own home.

I've talked about virtual table tops many times through the corse of RPGaDay, so I won't revisit that in this entry, but I will say, for those willing to run a game, there are plenty of potential players just chomping at the bit to join your campaign. I wish more of those potential players were players with potential, but at least there are plenty of them and you never know if you'll find the diamond in the rough...or if you're lucky enough you can latch on as a player. DMs/GMs are still relatively scarce in this time of plenty.

Last but not least, there are now plenty of systems available to play. Thanks to the digital age, archives and less savory sites have every game you can imagine available for download with the click of a button. Kick-Starter has so many interesting RPG products in need of funding that I had to start avoiding the site. For those with the disposable income and time for them there are plenty to choose from and plenty more on the way.

Tomorrow's topic is SCARY...it'll be scary for me because it's my last day before heading out to China. 

RPG A Day 2019--August 17th--One

For today's entry "One", I'm going to talk about a one-shot I played in one of the GRC mini-cons. 

About a year ago I played a one-shot for Black Void. It was a Kickstarter from a creator that I actually knew from the Gulf Roleplaying Community. I didn't get to see step-by-step behind the scenes--although the UAE looks small on the map, there's a great amount of distance between Dubai and the province out in the western desert of Liwa--but I did get to play in a play test one-shot and see the first dummied up GM screen. That was kind of neat for me. I even gave a little KS advice about shipping and handling and the trouble it has caused with projects. Here's the Drive-through RPG description of the game:

“A dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game

about the fall and resurgence of humanity” 

In the days when Babylon was the greatest city on Earth, mankind lived in placid ignorance of the grandeur, vastness and horror of the cosmos. Following cataclysmic events on Earth the fragile veil between reality and the Void was shattered and the truth of existence revealed. As mankind cried for salvation they were torn from their homeworld by Void-torrents and the surviving peoples of Earth were scattered among the stars. Countless were lost and mankind seemed all but perished. Over the decades the survivors, stragglers and ragged remnants of mankind’s tribes struggled for their lives across countless uncaring worlds. However, a few managed to go beyond mere subsistence and travel the Void-currents to congregate in fabled Llyhn, epicentre of the cosmos.

You can check it out here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/285707/Black-Void-Core-Book

For our one-shot we played as pre-gens. My character was a former cultist/gang member who tried to lead the rest of the party to a macguffin take it from my former allies and lead them to a ship waiting in the harbor. Other characters included one who wouldn't trust me and a couple of others to play off the both of us. Lots of fun was had and we of course got things done. Great success all around.  

I'm not just shilling for my friend, Chritoffer S. Sevaldsen's RPG, but also for one-shots in general.

1. One-shots give you a chance to play a lot of different games without making a lot of investments in them

2. You usually get a chance to meet a lot of different people too. 

3. When you play a pre-gen character you generally won't worry too much about preserving them, so you play balls to the wall and usually that's a lot of fun or at the very least a different feel than your regular campaigns. 

4. The GM is also generally playing with the gloves off, so he isn't afraid to kill off a character.

5. You usually do finish the story. A lot of campaigns peter out at some point without closure whereas your one-shot will wrap up in one session.

For tomorrow the topic is...Plenty

RPG A Day 2019--August 16th--Dream

Dreams. I've been interested in dreams all of my life. I think a lot about dreams and how if we could REALLY and consistently dream lucidly, that it would be the ultimate RPG. I'm sure everyone has had a lucid dream on occasion. You know that you are dreaming, but almost the instant that you realize it--at least in our perception which is really all that counts--you tend to wake up.

Since I've done a lot of research into dreams over the years, I know that we go through cycles of sleep throughout the night. The deepest level is where REM--rapid eye movement--and dreaming is said to take place. We enter that level several times throughout the night. We don't always wake up in the middle of that state even though it often feels like we do.

Some ways to increase lucid dreams are:

 1. Keep a dream journal next to your bed. If you have the time, write down every detail of your remembered dream as soon as you wake up. It's good to have a special journal and pen that you only use for the purpose of documenting your dreams.

2. If you can remember, ask yourself every hour or so--Am I dreaming?. This supposedly creates a loop in your head, and at some point you will ask yourself and realize that you are indeed inside a dream.

3. Surround yourself with what you want to dream about. Any little collectibles or pictures that you can keep in your bedroom to remind that you want to dream about 'X'.

4. This one is tricky to do and tricky to explain.  Keep your hand up by your side as you are lying down to sleep. When you actually fall asleep your hand should fall, but it shouldn't be enough to disturb you out of sleep...only enough to wake you in the dream.

So how has it worked out for me? I can say after trying these techniques off and one for nearly two decades and I've only had a handful of very memorable lucid dreams, but they are fun when you can have them. There are books on the subject--I know some came out when A Nightmare on Elm St. was popular, and I assume they came out again when Inception was popular--but, they tend to go off in new age/occult directions that I like to reserve strictly for fantasy.

I start travelling toward Manila and onward to China tonight, so we'll see if I can keep the streak going tomorrow with the prompt 'One'. 

RPG A Day--August 15th--Door

Today's prompt is 'Door'. When I think about doors, I think about choices.

I remember the game show, 'Let's Make a Deal' wherein host, Monty Hall, would give the contestants a choice between doors number 1, 2, or 3 to get the best prize at the end. I think they were curtains sometimes--maybe every time, Damn Mandela Effect--but, the point is the contestants had a choice.

I think about the saying, "When God closes a door, He opens a window". The phrase really isn't in the Bible, but there are similar passages with the same meaning. One opportunity or path may have been cut off to you, but another way is usually around if you look for it.

I think about the story, 'The Lady or the Tiger', wherein the protagonist has but two doors to choose from. One contains a beautiful lady that he'll be able to take for a wife, while the other contains a ferocious, man-eating tiger. He only has a fifty-fifty shot, and the story never lets us know what he chose.

I think about running the 'Death House' introduction to Ravenloft for D&D 5E and how one of my players classically listened with his ear pressed firmly against a door that turned out to be a mimic. It was really a great thing,

I think about my real-life and how I'm standing in front of the door to China...just five days away now. I already made the choice and opened that door back in April, but I still don't know what lies beyond it. To go through that door, I had to leave my semi-comfortable "room" in the UAE. You can do one or the other, but you can't do both. I just hope a lady is behind one of those doors.

Tomorrow is...Dream.

RPG A Day 2019--August 14th--Guide

For what is suddenly the 14th day of RPG a Day for this year we get the word 'Guide'.

In this hobby I think having a guide is important. It is so easy for a beginner to get overwhelmed by the ruleset of even the simplest RPG. To steal from Scott Garibay--another YouTube RPG commentator--Rulebooks are like candy for me. They really are. I'm currently reading the new Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Rules and I'm loving every minute of it. CP:Red is one that I intend to run, but other systems and rulesets I read in my leisure time with no intention of ever playing or running the game. However, that's not the norm I'm afraid to say. Most people--even enthusiasts--don't have time to read pages and pages of rules even if they have the inclination to do so. That's why having someone who can be a guide is a good thing,

At my live table this past year we had an older player--possibly the oldest I've ever played with--who had never played any games before. She was a colleague of the GM. While she was there visiting with his wife as they used to do some crocheting together, she started to listen in on our sessions. Although the wife had no interest in giving it a go--my  own wife won't try either. She is competitive and doesn't understand about a game that you can't "win"--the older lady really dug what was going on. It wasn't long at all before she made a character--Antigone, a human, lawful good Paladin--and joined in. Unfortunately, she was greener than grass.

The rest of us tried to guide her as best as we could. She was very good at the role playing end of things, but the mechanics were--and in some ways still are--beyond her grasp. We were all patient because she was fun to play with and consistently showed up for sessions. I wish I could say the same for myself but it was a tough year. Anyhow to make a long post less long, being patient and being a good guide helped the entire group to have fun and it took some of the load off of the GM. Throughout the year she continued to improve and will be returning with the rest of the group next year. Again, which is more than I can say for myself. I really closed a chapter of my life this past year. I am six days out from beginning my new chapter in China. I hope to find or form a group when I get out there.

Tomorrow--Door. 

RPG A Day 2019--August 13th--Mystery

Today's keyword is Mystery. I am a fan of Cyberpunk and the genre often lends itself to mystery. In fact, the Cyberpunk 2020 module that I ran for my most recent CP2020 campaign was "Thicker Than Blood" which revolves around a mysterious kidnapping. I won't spoil it, but it's a pretty good one.

I've never played call of Cthulhu or Leagues of Adventure, but I understand that both systems have mystery elements as their draw.

The game I really want to talk about is 'Those Meddling Kids" by Pandahead Productions. Believe it or not, this is also one that I've never played, but I have the PDF and I hope if 'Ponies' doesn't draw my daughter into the hobby, that TMK might. The game is basically Scooby-Doo. It's written for youngsters, but it can be fun for anybody who likes the genre. A group of mystery solving teens explore a mysterious situation with their side-kick--which for this game is called the Wild Card. This Wild Card can be your talking dog, little green man, or unfrozen caveman whichever wacky side-kick your hippie teens need to solve the mystery. The GM is running this 'Wildcard' which is a mechanic that I have liked ever since playing 'Ryuutama'. One mystery for me is why so many GMs hate having this permanent NPC available. I love having a 'voice' apart from my GM and regular NPC voice joining the party and this 'Wildcard' would fit nicely here. Another aspect of TMK that I think will be nice is that allegedly it only takes one hour or less to play. I really want my daughter--and any subsequent kids we might have if I hurry up and have them--and her friends to get into RPGs but a three hour session is a little too much of a good thing with their attention spans. The recommended age for TMK is seven and older. The daughter is only four ATM and I sure don't want to rush it, but I hope someday that I'll be able to introduce her to the hobby and this may be the way to do it.

Those Meddling Kids can be found here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/83837/Meddling-Kids It seems there are a few modules available. I am not sure of the current level of support for the game.

Tomorrow's topic...Guide

RPG A Day 2019--August 12th--Friendship

So today's word is friendship. I could talk about all the friends I've made through playing RPGs, but I'm sure I've talked about that before, so today I'm going to talk about a favorite show of mine and what should be the next RPG purchase I am likely to make--depending on how quick Cyberpunk: Red gets released--My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

I'm sure you guys don't live under a rock so you kind of know about MLP:FIM and how it became popular with a general audience of all ages instead of the "little girls and their young moms" target they were going for. Hasbro--who also owns Dungeons and Dragons through their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast--didn't exactly expect nor completely embrace this surprise audience, but at the same time, they didn't show us the door either. The "super-fans" of MLP:FIM are called Bronies and among all the fandoms that I am a part of, they take quite the ribbing...until people actually watch the show and find out that it's kind of cool. The fan community itself--I skew older than the typical "Brony" and can also get away with watching no questions asked nowadays because of my four year old daughter--is a fairly large and supportive one. There have been several conventions over the years, although I'm not so sure if the excitement is still there as it once was. I wouldn't call MLP a fad, but this "generation" of the ponies is coming to a close as the ninth--and final--season of Friendship is Magic is airing as of this writing.

So, why might a gamer like MLP:FIM? The writing is very good, there are jokes for adults and the overall fantasy setting. Aside from the talking ponies--earth, pegasus, unicorns, and alicorns--there are also other fantasy creatures such as: dragons and griffins, and this one time Fluttershy--best pony BTW--once stared down a cockatrice and won. I'd say the writing is silly yet clever, it's more likely to get a chuckle from pop culture savvy older folks like a good episode of 'The Flintstones' or 'Rocky and Bullwinkle', than it is to make you laugh out loud like 'The Simpsons' used to. On the other hand, It certainly isn't reveling in adult humor like 'South Park' or 'Family Guy'. At its core it remains a cartoon written with children in mind, but it's an enjoyable one that is worthwhile for more than just selling toys...and hopefully selling RPGs.

I don't know much about My Little Pony: Tales of Equestria other than to say that it is the officially licensed MLP:FIM RPG--that enough letters for you--and that it was apparently released back in 2017. I am very interested in using it as a gateway for my little girl into RPGs. It looks as though Hasbro--in spite of being the parent company of WOTC--licensed the ponies out to a company called River Horse games. They have a lot of other licensed games on their website, but I'm not sure what, if any, connection they have with Hasbro in general and I'm not going to get smart about it tonight. The game does have a starter box-set that I intend to purchase along with a big all encompassing rulebook ala Pathfinder (and others) . It appears that the line has been and is still being supported with modules. I'm sure to be visiting  https://riverhorse.eu/our-games/my-little-pony-tails-of-equestria/ as soon as I'm settled and have established a home address. Maybe you'll consider doing the same.

Tomorrow's word--Mystery!

RPG A Day 2019--August 11th--Examine

For 'Examine', I've decided to take a close look at some of my playing habits in recent years.

This past year I exclusively played in D&D 5E games. The live table where I was but a humble player was a home-brew of sorts, but we were still in 'Forgotten Realms' whereas the Roll*20 game I ran was a 5E supplement called 'Journey to Ragnarok' which I mashed-up with Index Card Role Playing Game. JTR is a Norse Mythology setting  for 5E created by a bunch of Italian guys--but it's really good in spite of not being about pasta, pizza, plumbing or the mafia ;)


For the past nine years I have enjoyed what I think is the productive habit of trying out different games annually. Unfortunately, ICRPG not withstanding, I didn't get to try any "new" systems this year. The large group I've mentioned before, Gulf Roleplaying Community, only held mini-conventions in Dubai this year, and as I had one foot out the door and was a regular participant in my local game anyway, I didn't make the 6+ hour round trip out there, and again, being a short-timer meant not backing any new KickStarter projects. Side note--all my physical books being relocated from UAE to China by way of the Philippines has not been a cost-effective endeavor to say the least. I won't know the full extent of this trouble until August 20 when I enter the People's Republic. If I back any KS projects this year, they will probably be digital only. I still have two physical books in the wind that I rerouted to the U.S.

As a player, I typically play female characters. This year was no exception. At the live table I played the never--um...ever-popular, Reganlief Torbjorn. She was a human beast master ranger of the chaotic good alignment. The backstory was that she was a part of a somewhat well to do family of hunters which made their fortune on exotic furs and the like. On one expedition, Reganlief, her father, and her brother were attacked by an unknown creature. Although badly wounded, broken and scarred, Reganlief was the lone survivor of the attack. She vowed revenge. She left her mother--and the family fortune--scouring the lands in search of the elusive creature. The gimmick for her was that she was a cutter who would never let the scars on her face heal. I purposely created her using 5E RAW for Beastmaster Rangers which everyone knows is kind of weak because I wanted to see how bad it was. I eventually multi-classed her to cleric because of this weakness and the fact that the party needed a cleric anyway. My DM this year was really good about weaving our backstories in to the campaign. The creature Reganlief was after ended up being a Peryton--a magic creature that was a cross between a giant eagle and a stag, known for tearing the still beating hearts from its victims--which the party dispatched of in two rounds...sometimes winning that initiative is half the battle. Very quick and final aside--As a GM we can do whatever we want, but being fair and playing within the rules these days means the players--DM's caveat and/or fighting beyond their level not withstanding--are almost kill proof in straight battles.

That ended up being a long one. Tomorrow's topic is....Friendship

RPG A Day 2019--August 10th--Focus

What can I say about focus? Much like yesterday's entry the focus should be on the fun--for everybody in the group; those running the game and those playing. That aside, I've played quite a few games over the years and while combat is almost always going to ultimately be the focus of every game, there are a few that tried a slightly different focus. I'm going to talk about two of them.

1. Ryuutama--I am always proselytizing for this game any chance I get. The focus is on traveling--battling the elements, managing resources, and setting up camp--throughout a long journey. The game has its origins in Japan and has often been called "Miyazaki's Oregon Trail" because you get the whimsical feels of a Miyazaki film and the deadly travel of the old Oregon Trail computer game. Another unique aspect of the game is the Ryuujin character for the GM to run. I am a voice in the wilderness but I can't say enough good things about this game.

2. Seventh Sea--I backed the KickStarter for 2nd edition and at one point it was the most successfully funded table top game. The company is having a little trouble right now, but they are ironing out the problems. Several books were produced for the for the project and are readily available now. The focus for this game is player agency and over the top swashbuckling action. It definitely has a different feel than the average game of D&D.

I was actually planning to talk about a few other games with non-combat focus--but I haven't played too many of them. World of Darkness--old and new as far as I can gather--always focused more on the storytelling. It was sort of their selling point back in the old days. I want to play the "Dread" RPG which uses a Jenga tower for its resolutions--I'm sure tension is the focus there--but I've never had the opportunity. I still use the tower to play regular Jenga from time to time though.

What's next? Examine. That implies a close look at something...I'll have to think about it. 

RPG A Day 2019--August 9th--Critical

This is an easy prompt to answer. What is the most critical thing about RPGs be they one-shots or decades long campaigns? It's critical that everyone have fun. Sometimes that's called the number one rule and I don't disagree. I've learned a few more things in my years of play that could be critical to a successful campaign.

1. Session Zero--the one where everyone defines what the game is going to be about and what characters they want to play. You should have one and get all that stuff out of the way to save you from headaches in the future.

2. Communication--throughout the campaign the group should be communicative about what is working and what's not. What is fun for the player and the DM. It always goes back to rule one. If you are playing with people that you know, most of the time this is easy. If you play a lot of online games or other "league" type games wherein you don't really know everyone, it's a good idea to let someone know if something is offensive to you. It's a snowflake thing, but the 'X' card is good. No explanation needed, just throw up the 'X' and the group--who should all be trying to have fun with each other--should back away from the offensive material.

3. Beware of holidays and long breaks--as a school teacher I find winter and summer holiday to be the bane of my groups. As much fun as RPGs are, it's easier to not play than it is to play. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. If it's not fun for you, then certainly take a hiatus or give it up completely, but if it is a hobby you enjoy, don't let complacency and laziness rob you of the joy of playing.

4. Be good to your DM/GM--we're in a symbiotic relationship and everyone should be kind to everyone...especially if you are all friends, but the DM/GM is putting in a lot of work. If you don't believe it, give it a go yourself and you'll appreciate a good DM/GM more. It's actually a lot of fun to run, but you really do have to put a little time in if you want to be a good one. I think even the best improv guy out there needs to prep a little bit and often it's the DM/GM who hosts to boot. So clean up, buy a beer and snacks and take care of him

That's enough for today. Tomorrow's prompt is focus.

RPG A Day 2019--August 8--Obscure

Today I wanted to talk about a fun game that I picked up this last year that is becoming less and less obscure all the time. This game is Index Card Role Playing Game--ICRPG from Runehammer Games. I'll post the link to Drive Thru, but since you are the converted you probably already know.

Essentially, ICRPG is D&D 5E stripped down and refined into just the real essentials. It's somehow not dumbed down by any means and fans of the system and the author himself continuously add to it..yet, it's elegantly simple.

I won't spoil everything, but there are gimmicks like: timers, loot, difficulty settings, and milestones that simplify everything. Players are always in initiative. Action is always happening. Even measurements have been refined by using a bannana. Aside from making notes about some of the wild loot you can get and possibly your magic spells, you really don't have to look up anything, and you can easily convert any D&D5E character or monster in a few minutes.

What makes it even better is the it helps out other systems as well. Aside from D&D, I've modded Ryuutama and Cyberpunk as well with varying degrees of success by using the gimmicks. If I wanted to teach a new player about RPGs and they've never played before, I'm going with ICRPG over any starter set or "kids" game that's out today.  I plan to give CP2020 another go this year using even more of the ICRPG material--if Roll*20 works in China that is. There is also a wrestling game that I converted that I'm all set for, but haven't tried out yet. You'd be surprised at what you might get into using the GM's Tool Kit...and the book is actually pretty small.

Speaking of using the tools, conversions are not as time consuming as you might think, and it's actually fun for me. The ICRPG book has helped me to understand game design better than I ever have before and I've been playing for 30+years. Even if its popularity does grow--and I hope it does--it will still be obscure in my mind as one of the few games that has really taught me something. Again, that's ICRPG found here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/212262/INDEX-CARD-RPG-Core-2E

...among other places. You can even get a free quick start without resorting to piracy.

Tomorrow's word is Critical...

RPG A Day 2019--August 7th--Familiar

I'm having trouble with this one. Should we talk about systems we're familiar with or familiar situations we've been in? In any case I'm not going to spend a lot of time with thinking about it as there are many days and prompts ahead.

When it comes to RPGs and familiarity, I think we tend to stick with the games and even the people that we are familiar with. It's sometimes hard to move from the familiar because we feel safe and contented there. In particular, if you've invested a bunch of time or money in a game or particular edition, it's hard re-invest in something new. Almost every time I go to a Mexican Restaurant I get steak fajitas and a margarita. I might want to try something new, but at the end of the day, if I go outside the familiar and I don't like it, well, I feel like I missed out. Gaming is like that on a much larger scale. There is only a finite amount of money and time. Scheduling a session is rough. We tend not to want to waste that time learning a system we might like to play and would rather jump right into playing something that everyone is familiar with. That's okay, but sometimes you miss out on better by sticking with good.

Tomorrow's word is the opposite direction--Obscure. I'll be talking about a fairly obscure game I enjoy and that I feel is worth stepping away from the familiar for-Index Card Role Playing Game.

RPGaDay 2019--August 6--Ancient

Today's word is 'Ancient' which is sometimes how I feel if I'm playing with a 20-something or younger. It's hard to believe that I've been playing RPGs in one way or another for over thirty years.

Back in my day we didn't have any of these Elec-Tronic dice rollers...we actually had to roll dice and sometimes you had to color in the numbers and you were lucky to have more than one set.

We didn't have any of the fancy virtual table tops and applications--if you didn't have friends to play with you had to come up with a way to run solo or else play the Fighting Fantasy, Choose Your Own Adventure or  Wizards Warriors and You books.

And forget about video games, they were all text-based and you had to either play Adventure on the Atari 2600 or Gauntlet in the arcade.

Plus, if you did manage to find a group you'd all be pegged as Devil Worshippers anyhow and may make the news as a local coven.

And you wouldn't let any girls play with you and if they did show up, they were already attached to the one "cool guy" in your group, and you'd do your best to run them off and teach them a lesson.

That's the way it was and we liked it... We loved it!!

I was trying to channel Dana Carvey's old man character from Saturday Night Live but even the reference to that comedian and his skits dates me as being more ancient.

In gaming a lot have things have improved for the better since those "Ancient" times in the 1980's--maybe '70's for those more ancient than me--and I'm not a politically correct/SJW kind of guy, far from it, but wouldn't it be nice to go back to the time when kids playing Dungeons and Dragons--and other RPGs--was the biggest problem parents had to worry about.

Tomorrow's word is Familiar

RPGaDay 2019--August 5th--Space

Todays word is "space" as I stare at the blank space of this page and try to use the empty space between my ears to fill it. My idea about space today is the great amount of it between me and my gaming groups...and how it's not so big of a problem anymore.

I don't want the whole month to be about Roll*20 and other virtual table tops, but they truly are a godsend. For years and years I had no game to play at all because even a couple of hours travel time removed from the main group made it virtually impossible to attend regularly...and I can't be the flake.  Nowadays--especially if you are willing to run it--dozens of games are available and just a click away.

I still have problems getting together with old friends in the States and I'm sure the UAE group is done in as far as my participation in it is concerned~lots of space means different time zones~. I'm not clear how this year's effort will go as I relocate to China. Will I have access to a live group out there? Might I be able to recruit my new students or create a role playing club? Will my virtual table tops even work on their strictly regulated internet? Who knows?  However, there is no doubt that the world is a whole lot smaller thanks to our technology and the space between us is a smaller hurdle to participating in the hobby than it has ever been.

Tomorrow...'Ancient'

RPG A Day--August 4th--Share

I'm cheating a bit in this entry by SHARING one of what I hope is one of my funnier news reports. So many funny ones to choose from, and while these reports are 100% pure Markham, the campaign was the classic "Thicker Than Blood" module and the actions reported on were based on those taken by the players

Setting up the Clip:

It's from a Roll*20 session of a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign I ran around two years ago. I can't imagine any of you not knowing what Cyberpunk is, but just in case, it's a near dystopian future setting wherein we have progressed well technologically speaking, but maybe not so much socially. Some have called it hi-tech low-life. It's kind of like Bladerunner or Alita: Battle Angel.  I play as Cocoa Lopez AKA COLO she is a young media personality employed by Network 54 to report on the exploits of a team of edgerunners--the players--which she is embedded with. In these reports are her boss, anchor man, Lyle McClellen, her co-worker and rival, Bobbie Blake, and a few other NPCs.

The Broadcasts:

    This is Lyle McClellen with breaking news out of South Night City in the area known as the Hill. Earlier this afternoon an explosion decimated one of the many mill houses in the area resulting in the death of one Marta Anders. The 80-year-old, long-time resident was said to be a pillar of the community to the many undocumented workers that populate this area.  NCPD forensics had this to say on the matter:

“Well,  one thing’s for sure, it’ll have to be a closed casket funeral. Had to have some of the low-level tech boys blot what was left of her up with handiwipes—hope they get enough to take down to the morgue, so we can try an’ identify her officially. 

Of course it was booster gangs…but in a neighborhood like this “Nobody didn’t see nuffin’”…gets worse every year the freakin’ animals. What’s this supposed to be—some kind of accident? What did she do mistake a KG of military grade C6 explosives for Cake mix?  What kind of a sicko blows up an old lady anyway? That’s what I’d like to know. 

In what is surely an incredible coincidence, our own Coco Lopez, who is currently embedded with a group of “special investigators” for the hit show ‘Night City: Ride Along’ seen here each night on Network 54, was on the scene only a short time before the tragedy struck. Miss Lopez is there any insight that you can give so that the people of this city can make some sense out of this senseless act?

I didn’t see nuffin. 

I'll share another one...but they keep getting smaller...

If you have your jeweler's glass handy, you just might be able to check out one more...

 I wish I could make them bigger for you but I think you get the general idea. Tomorrow's topic...SPACE.




































and the report...if I can post it...