The Electoral College: A Dumb Guy's Perspective

 I post this for my politics types group from time to time. Maine is a good state--what with their three electoral college votes and all--because they do divide them up. It's a very convoluted process though--again to divide three votes--and if you ever have insomnia you can look into it. 

Why I like the Electoral College:

In theory it does prevent mob rule to an extent. We are supposed to be a Constitutional Republic not run by the mob. Because of larger inner city populations and huge, populous states like CA and NY, mob rule is exactly what we would get and it would likely be liberal. Straight popular vote isn't the way to go for anyone with conservative values. 

Why I don't like the Electoral College:

In practice if TX and CA ever get on the same page politically, we'll be governed by those two states the same as we would if there was a straight popular vote, thus removing the very reason that makes the EC useful in the first place. TX is a lot more likely to flip to blue before CA ever goes red. 

Winner takes all is no good. At the moment why would Trump waste a dime campaigning in CA? If he loses 99% to 1% he gets the same zero EC votes that he would get losing 51% to 49%. I won't look it up because nobody reads a text wall anyway, but you can safely guess 20-30% of CA who voted Trump had no voice in the 2016 election. If you like to vote third party, forget about it. The same would hold for those out of TX who voted for Clinton. The only state that doesn't follow winner take all is Maine. 

If we're going to make "weird changes" to the way our votes are represented, I would prefer they keep the EC but divide those EC votes in proportion to the percentage each candidate received in the popular vote. 

Example: CA has 55 EC votes if the Republican managed to take 30% of the popular vote, he would be awarded 16.5 EC votes, the Democrat would get 38.5. This way everyone in the state would get a voice. I was keeping the math simple but if a third party candidate managed to pull in anything they too would be a part of the proportion. I'm just fantasy booking and I know they'll never do it, but I feel it would be a lot more fair and make it worthwhile for the candidates to campaign everywhere.

RPG A Day 2020: Day 31--experience

RPG A Day 2020: Day 31—Experience

Well, we made it to the end of another year of RPG A Day. The tale of the tape—I addressed every prompt with at least a link to a YouTube video. The rest were fairly long, but I hope they remained entertaining enough. ‘Tribute’ got the most views with a healthy 15.

What will next year bring? Who knows? I’ll likely participate in RPG A Day if there’s another one. I always have fun writing responses and reading/watching the other participants take on the entry of the day, but I might be responding with links to various songs every entry next time if I don’t get any new ‘experience’ playing. I can see already that it’s going to be a rough one. Just today I received my work schedule for the year and it’s loaded—not even counting all the professional development I’m going to need.

I can’t help but to sound overly dramatic here, but even if I decide to leave the hobby for good, the experiences that I had with friends, family and even total/semi-strangers will be told and retold again and again. 

RPG A Day: Day 30--Portal

 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 30—Portal

With ‘Portal’ it’s a good chance do the song playlist style of response. I love the two songs from Portal 1 and Portal 2 even though I’m not good at the games. When Roll 20 was able to stream music it was so much more fun as I think there’s a song for every mood. Trying to stream music I own or linking to YouTube clips is  just too clunky. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFDx5qTlGjU

RPG A Day: Day 29--Ride

 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 29—Ride


My initial thought were to write about my RPG playing journey which has been a long ride unto itself. I’m not sure what the next phase of that ride will look like or if I have indeed taken my last ride, but I wrote enough about that yesterday.

Next, I started thinking about the amount of time I have spent riding just to get to a game session—time that could probably have been spent doing something better. I wrote a little bit about that, but ultimately deleted it. Probably the most interesting thing I had to say about that was how I had driven around five hours one-way to play random games at a mini-cons in Dubai during my UAE years—those games were few and far between as you can imagine with a ride time like that. I deleted most of that and started over—too boring.

Finally, I have decided to write this final paragraph about all the things—to the best of my recollection—that I have ridden:

1. A Saint Bernard— no memory of this, but I have been told several times that when I was a toddler that would ride on back of a St.Bernard named Big Boy.

2. Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Boats, Ships, Tuk-Tuks, motorcycles, scooters, four  wheelers—no helicopter, no submarine, no spacecraft and no hot-air balloon otherwise man-made conveyances are pretty well covered.

3. Camels—UAE

4. Elephant, Goat-drawn carriage—Sri Lanka

5. Horse—Philippines

I guess I need to ride an ostrich eventually. 

RPG A Day: Day 28--Close

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V41a_5INzVY

RPG A Day 2020: Day 28—Close

There are two ways to pronounce today’s prompt and I’m sure it was done by design. RPG A Day will soon come to a close vs. we are very close to wrapping up RPG a Day.

I have to say that most of my responses have had a negative vibe this year. Hard to avoid it what with everything going on in the world. This one is no different for better or worse.

I feel that I am closer to walking away from hobby than I’ve been in years. That’s not to say that I won’t come back at some point or that I will stop following the updates and taking an interest in upcoming projects—even participating in next year’s RPG A Day. I think my daughter is about a year or two away from being ready for a full on introduction to the hobby and hopefully she’ll bring some friends with her and I’ll be the gaming dad, but that’s really all I see on the horizon.

Some say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it has been my experience as an overseas teacher, that for many things the more proper saying is out of sight, out of mind. I used to be a big NFL fan, but now some 11 years into the overseas career, I find that I rarely watch aside from the Super Bowl and I have no plans of even watching that this year. The separation from the latest RPG group due to the Wuhan Flu has finally steered me in a similar direction with table-top gaming. The time that I didn’t invest—I still refuse to call it time wasted—in playing and preparing to play has been spent on other endeavors. I’ve come to the realization that we need to redeem the time, and I’m not sure that playing RPGs is the best way to do that.

I’m going to link here the story of another DM who felt similar. Very interesting story. I don’t want to put out the wrong message. I love RPGs—I find nothing satanic or wrong in a Christian sense about them—and will likely come back or never fully leave, but listening to him—and I did come across this some years ago—gave me a lot to think about. There is nothing wrong with RPGs in and of themselves, but they are a time sink, and I don’t think anyone can deny it. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 27: Favor

RPG A Day 2020: Day 27—Favor

I can’t think of a song about favors, so that means I need to write an actual entry today. Unfortunately, it’s another difficult prompt to write for, and to further that misfortune, I believe the ideas that I do have have a negative vibe to them.

I think about how over a period of time many things that were once in favor have now fallen out of favor. The way the game is played, the way people play them, the attitudes of the enthusiasts and even the creators of the games have changed and for the most part it hasn’t been for the better from my perspective. Here’s the most recent triggering: An old quote by Gary Gygax and a more recent one from Johnathan Tweet—now labeled misogynistic by the snowflakes that be. Here’s the link to an article by one of the offended who may well be a “friend” to RPG A Day for all I know.

https://stargazersworld.com/2020/08/26/the-misogyny-at-the-core-of-our-hobby/ 

I’ve tried to post the Gygax one, but you can read both comments from the original blogger’s post and  make your own judgement about how offensive they are.  Neither seem overtly misogynistic to me. Both comments seems like an observation and a report of facts. Stating facts have fallen out of favor over the years.

What is in favor is being overly critical at every statement that doesn’t tow the woke line. What is in favor is "cancelling" a person or finding them "problematic" long after they're dead. Here’s the response from the original blogger to the "offending" quotes:

“Over the last few years I have realized that looking up to “industry luminaries” is often a terrible idea. More often than not our “heroes” turn out to be terrible people. Even worse their often harmful ideologies make it into the games they created which make it hard to separate the art from the artist”.

Brother,—or sister, wouldn’t want to assume gender now would I?—did you ever hear the Tragedy of Chris Benoit the Crippler? If you think these benign comments from a couple of "industry luminaries" make it “hard to separate the art from the artist”,  then you better go find a safe space and hold on to your soy latte should you ever decide to investigate the matter.

I always end these "tough love" posts with the caveat that the hobby is big enough for everyone. Play how you like. Even if you have to clutch your pearls when looking at older material. I'd hope my SJW targets would use my ranting to grow a spine, but in this case, I can’t say that I fully understand why the hobby wants to change so radically to please a demographic made up of  non-players who’ll screw around a little with it then move on to the next thing they want to ruin while alienating the core  audience—niche as it may be at times—that made the thing a thing in the first place. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 26--Strange

 Sticking with what I did yesterday, for today's prompt I went with a matching song. Strange takes the obvious choice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Mz_IqpZX8

RPG A Day 2020--Day 25: Lever

 In a preview of what my RPG A Day 2021 entries might look like if I don't come up with any new gaming  experiences due to the Wuhan-Flu. Here's a link to a song about Lever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVQwzv5Qfc

I might come up with a song for each entry every day or else just stick a song in when I can't think of anything better to say. So, that's it for today!

RPG A Day 2020: Day 24--Humor

RPG A Day 2020: Day 24—Humor

I couldn’t play these things without humor. It seems even in a serious game I often cast myself in the comic-relief role. I try not to be too annoying although I tend to play most of my characters like Kenders which is admittedly a bit strange when playing a Call of Cthulhu or Deadlands game, but nevertheless.

Puns are often called the bottom of the barrel when it comes to humor, but if you lift the barrel you may find punny names to be even lower on the list, but it’s what I do. I think I posted some of those punny names during another RPG-A-Day, so I won’t regale you with the list again, but even in Pokemon I stooped as low as to name my sandshrew ‘Sandy Claws’.

As I’ve gotten older the level of humor in my games has only increased while the seriousness has become less and less. I don’t want a lot of “Teen Titans Go!” style “bathroom humor” because it just makes me cringe. Unfortunately, humor is so subjective sometimes you have to even let something like that go for the good of the table. Even if you play the grimmest of the grim-dark I think you have to have some humor in there somewhere just for a release—even if it’s out of character.

This is also a good time to mention the ‘X’ card. I already said that I hate all those “woke” mechanics like bringing “pronouns” into a game. I’d be quick to turn someone who identifies as he/him as ‘soy boy’, one who identifies as she/her as ‘soy girl’ and a they/them as ‘soy non-binary’ and tell each and everyone of those snowflakes to find a safe space away from my table. However, I really don’t want to legitimately hurt anyone’s feelings. In one game we were stealing dragon eggs and one of the characters dropped an egg. My knee-jerk reaction was—looks like the short bus for him.—not knowing that my GM had a special needs child. I meant absolutely nothing by it and my friend the GM knew this and didn’t make a big deal out of it, but had I known it was a touchy subject, I’d have never made that joke at all. Having that ‘X’ card to show should be a signal to the GM and the fellow players that the humor is going too far. No need to elaborate, just flash it and if the group of friends are at the table they should respect that and back off. Most of the time people are being offensive they don’t even realize it.

RPG A Day 2020: Day 23--Edge

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 23—EDGE

I’ve talked a lot about my collection this year and the ever growing stack of games that never get played—and in many cases have never been played. Why is it that for the most part Dungeons and Dragons is what groups start out with and go back to? Why does it have the edge over everything else in the stack? I’m preaching mostly to the choir, but I want an entry for every day this month and this is one of them.

1. Name recognition: Right or wrong D&D and RPG are practically synonyms. Every soft drink is a Coke in the south. Every facial tissue is a Kleenex world wide—at least in ‘merica and UAE anyway. Even if you explain to a non-player what an RPG is they’ll say, oh like Dungeons and Dragons.

2. Ease of access: As of this writing there are D&D products in Wal-Mart now. My Mandela affected, Swiss cheese memory taken into account, I remember this from back in the 80’s in other dept. stores. People can get it or are friends with people who have it. Every new edition—even if it’s just Malibu Stacey with a new hat—will get higher sales than anything on the market. This isn’t even mentioning the online saturation.

3. Ease of system: Especially in 5E’s case, it doesn’t take long to create characters and learn to play. I’m coming from older editions and other complex systems, so of course it was easy for me and at the end of the day nobody plays the rules 100%, but all that said the new players in the group last year were total greenhorns and they picked right up on it.

4. Third Party Support: I’m using the video game term, maybe I should call it open-license? Either way a lot of the Kickstarter projects either add settings or supplemental material for D&D. It’s easier to get people to try something new when it’s more or less D&D. I mentioned Runehammer games in an earlier entry and their ‘D&D Hardcore Mode’ which is such a good tweak—ICRPG is it’s own thing, but it too can plug right into 5E and it’s cheap, streamlined and easily acquired. I also backed a Kickstarter called ‘Journey to Ragnarok’ by Mana Project Studios which was a Norse Mythology based setting and adventure. There are many more out there if you look. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/257334/Journey-To-Ragnarok--Adventure-and-Setting-for-5e

Back in my day….I like to think that it’s still my day, but nevertheless…we all seemed to have more time to create characters and learn new systems. I still like reading new rules and making characters and maps for games that I’ll likely never play. I sometimes think that's the equivalent of becoming a cat lady if I were a woman, but I take enjoyment in it. For others, however, it’s a time-sink that they may be unable or unwilling to make. If they learn a system, it’s usually the latest and “greatest” new version of D&D.   

RPG A Day 2020: Day 22--Rare

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 22—Rare

I’m old enough at age 46 that I prefer print media to digital any day of the week. I’ve purchased, collected, gave away, lost, downsized and reacquired many RPGs and related materials over the years. I still have regrets about not finding a way to hold on to a large collection of Champions books that was gifted to me by a friend who also had to downsize—as well as a ton of old PSM magazine issues, what a good video game magazine that was. That said, as much as I wish I’d kept certain things being a hoarder really never did me any good. The stack just keeps growing and you know you can’t take it with you…not even in this world. As I’ve mentioned before I have bits and pieces scattered all over the place USA, Philippines and here in China and as much as I want to keep it all, I can’t. When I’m trying to drag my library with me through the airports and paying all those fees, I can see the appeal of sticking with PDFs. On the other hand, I don’t see any digital downloads ever being rare or desirable and once it’s released online the pirate industry kicks in.

In spite of all the trouble I’ve had holding on to my hard-copies, I’ve not lost everything to the ravages of time nor has all my collection fallen into complete disrepair. Just by virtue of my being old some things in my RPG collection are uncommon if not rare. Here are a few.

1. WWF Basic Adventure Game (1993): The World Wrestling Federation—now known as WWE—was a very different beast back in the 90’s when this game came into being. It is post-Hogan/pre-attitude era with the likes of early HBK, Yokozuna, and Doink the Clown stinking up the ring. The game itself looks good if not overly complex. I’ve read through it several times, but never played it aside from creating wrestlers. It’s current location is in the Philippines in my treasure chest.
https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=40

2. Tinker’s Damn (1997): An anime inspired game with loosely defined rules that left coming up with most play mechanics to the imagination of its players. Again, one I’ve never played, but one that I did read through several times. Nowadays, with Kickstarter and whatnot it is fairly easy to pick up a book with a limited print run if you want it. Back in the 90’s and earlier if the neighborhood shop didn’t order it, you would probably have never even heard of it. In my case, this one fell off the truck at work because I liked the cover art.
https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=13712

3. Dreadmire (2005): This one supposedly has an interesting and controversial backstory which I didn’t know about at the time when I picked it up. It’s a supplemental about swamp setting. I’d like to read it someday as the person who wrote it seemed to know a lot about living in a swamp. Unfortunately, the print setting is so small that I find that I never get very far in any attempt.
https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=6891

Also, of note is that I have a first printing of Vampire: The Masquerade from the old White Wolf books along with the Gangrel clan book. I don’t say those are all that rare either, but they survived several culling and I hope to keep them.

RPG A Day 2020--Day 21: Push

RPG A Day 2020: Day 21—Push

Today’s prompt is push. A lot of ideas come into my mind with this word.

I think of how—at age 46—that I am indeed pushing fifty or at least I’m on the wrong side of forty if you will, and the amazement that I feel that I still get enjoyment from a hobby I first played as a kid.

I also think of how some players—right or wrong on the GM’s part—have to be pushed to role play. A lot of players feel uncomfortable doing it at first, and for some, that aspect of the game never comes into being. It’s good if they still enjoy it. Nobody needs to be told how to play. Sometimes though, it’s that little push that can lead the player into bigger things than just rolling the dice and playing as one does a board game.

Lastly, I think of how I have to push myself to play a lot times right up to the minute of game time. I’m always getting the feeling that I’d rather do something else or—in the case of running one—that I don’t have enough prepared. Most of the time once things get going, I find my anxiety to be unwarranted and we all have a good time.

Right now I’ve become stagnant. I have a lot of work to do and many new aspects of my job to train for. I am caught in between pushing myself to start up something new in Roll 20 or seeking out any possible existing groups in my new neighborhood, but I’m afraid I might be staying right here for a bit longer. Someone will really need to push me to pick it back up again. As a teacher with a lot of set holiday time—winter break, spring break, summer break—I’ve always found long absences to be the bane of RPG groups. With the pandemic and an absence of eight months now, who knows if it will ever go back to the way it was. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 20--Investigate

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 20—Investigate

Keeping the daily blog streak alive with this one. Immediately, the first idea that comes to my mind with this prompt is that it is the time of year when I am highly vested in investigating the ideas of fellow players and GMs and their feelings on the hobby. Throughout the rest of the year I may visit a blog or two or catch a video, but for the most part, the month of RPG a Day is when I branch out from the so-called “big names” and see what all is out there. It’s a big community. 

The second thing I think about is how lousy most campaigns are that focus on investigation and solving mysteries because number 1,  the characters are smarter than the players and number 2, sessions are disjointed and even for those who take copious notes it’s usually difficult to come up with the answers…always a let down when the big reveal of the mastermind finally happens and nobody knows who that  person is without checking their notes. The same goes for riddles and puzzles. It might be fun to give it a try, but when I’m struggling, let me roll for my girl. She’s got an 18 INT, she shouldn’t be counting on me. It’s not as if you make me pick up a sword and fight a guy when I’m playing as a character with 18 STR.

Until tomorrow. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 19--Tower

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

RPG A Day 2020: Day 19—Tower

I don’t have much to say about ‘tower’, but when I think about the word, I can’t help but to remember the Macho Man—among the best pro-wrestlers of all time and one of his promos—“The Tower of Power too sweet to be sour…etc. etc”. I want to think that I’ve heard the same from Superstar Billy Graham and possibly Dusty Rhodes as well. Surely, “funky like a monkey” was used by a lot of wrestlers in the 70’s and 80’s, so they don’t exactly trademark their promos. I think Dolemite, Rudy Ray Moore may have said it a time or two too.

There’s a lot of overlap between wrestling and RPGs. If you have trouble getting into character watch some wrestling promos.

Honorable mentions to a new guy, Brandon Cutler who wrestles for AEW. He’s big into RPGs and even uses it for his gimmick. 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 18--Meet

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 18—Meet

Today’s prompt opens discussions that are more apropos than ever what with much of the world still in the throws of the Wuhan flu and/or whatever else 2020 seems to have in store for us on the daily. For those joining me today, I am an expat English teacher and for the last two years, I’ve been teaching in China, ground zero—if you will—for our pandemic woes. It’s quite the large ground zero however, and I haven’t lived in an area with very strict measures in place. The most I’ve had to do is wear a mask to grocery stores and the like. We have our temperatures taken and we’ve been using a phone app that tracks where we’ve visited, but no big deal really.

I’m in the second week of orientation at my new and we are meeting as normal. In about a week and a half the plan is to put us in face to face meetings with students just as we normally would. However, we—teachers and students alike—will be required to wear masks starting from that time due to government mandate. Students—I’m in a middle school/high school—may also need to spend their entire day in one classroom—those classes also set-up with social distance measures in mind.

We’re an international school, so a lot of teachers and even some students are still stranded overseas as they have been since the Chinese New Year break back in January/February. In those cases, the absent teacher will be broadcasting with a second face to face teacher assisting—makes for a fun situation like when I’m scheduled to assist in economics and haven’t seen hide nor hair of such in over a decade—or students receiving my broadcast as I teach the face to face students. Then there are more regulations than that that may come and go as you can imagine since we’re dealing with children. I’m hoping we don’t go on full lock down again, but this did happen in Beijing only a couple of months ago. I’m fairly sure it was said that the students were able to attend a total of two weeks last semester—a couple of weeks at the end of May—before the whole school got shut down and exclusively teaching online again. Back near my hometown in Georgia USA one school was in session for literally less than a week before going right back on lockdown. There’s no escaping this thing or at least no escaping the changes.

What does this have to do with RPGs? The problems and precautions of meeting nowadays affect everything. There may be a group who plays or wants to form, but they will probably be leery of getting together. Meeting online is an option, but for someone like myself, an additional 3hrs or more of screen time isn’t all that appealing when you’ve been spending so much time on screen as it is. Conventions have almost all been cancelled or taken online, and even production and distribution of certain product have slowed or taken even bigger hits. Can the hobby take it? Could it actually make it into a bigger thing? Will we ever get back to the way things were? It seems so overly dramatic for a virus with a 98% recovery rate, but here we are.  

RPG A Day 2020: Day 17--comfort

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 17—Comfort

‘Comfort’ is another challenging prompt. I can only say as a player or DM/GM there are times that one should step out of their comfort zones and try something new. For better or worse, true or technically not quite, Dungeons and Dragons is synonymous with role-playing, and for many that’s as far as they’re likely to go. There are so many more out there to try and thinks to crowd funding and self-publishing even more coming down the line, but most never go beyond D&D and a lot of time they don’t even go beyond the edition they broke in with. You never know what hidden gem you might be missing. 

Best I can do today. Maybe tomorrow’s will be more inspiring for me. 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 16--Dramatic

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 16—Dramatic

It will be a really short one today with dramatic. Most of my games have never been dramatic—or at least not overly so. My latest DM had a lot of flair, but there still seemed to be humor throughout.

One bit of drama that I do remember came from one somewhat recent Roll 20 group wherein I played as a Dwarven Ale Bootlegger/Merchant named Darville Frostbeard—fighter class, but I played up his background more than anything. We were playing through that 5E Tiamat campaign. I had gotten into a semi-regular habit of doing brief set “cut-scenes” with one of my fellow players—an actual real-life girl BTW. I made them funny as I could and I think the other players and the DM really got into our “dramatic” performances.

But, then real-life online drama started to set in as the DM was really favoring the girl. I didn’t care because I’m older and kind of go along to get along anyway in my disposition, but it was clear/blatant. The girl for her part was a newbie, and fell into sort of a rules lawyer type. I say the rules are there for a reason and we should try to play at least in the spirit of them, but I remember her getting too into it. Meanwhile, the other players started losing the plot. Say what you will, but those intrigue games never seem to go anywhere. No matter how intelligent the characters might be, the player behind the mask is the one controlling their actions and I’ve found we’re not all that deductive in our reasoning. Often when the “big reveal” happens we have to check our notes—if we bothered taking them—to even figure out who the bad guy is.

Anyway, the campaign was totally meandering along  with tension at the virtual table. If I remember it lasted about three sessions more before everyone dropped save for me, the DM, and the girl. The DM still wanted to run the Tiamat campaign as we had not even gotten through the first module. The girl was down for it, but for me a total reboot after having played from the beginning just wasn’t in the cards. I took my bows and headed on to running Roll 20 games of my own. 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 15--Frame

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 15—Frame

We’re suddenly just about at the half-way point for this year’s RPG A Day experiment. ‘Frame’ is another tough prompt for me to come up with anything of alleged import to say. When I give prompts to students—prompts will usually be more than one word BTW a topic that’s too open and you never know what you’re gonna get, but in most cases it’ll be a lot of blank stares—I usually tell a struggler to use the dictionary or thesaurus to look up other words and meanings that might inspire them to come up with something more than a blank page. I did this for ‘frame’ and found one of the definitions for the word when used as a verb: “to shape or adapt to a particular purpose: to frame a reading list for ninth graders…” I’m going to run with that and frame a short list of RPGs that I think are appropriate for beginners:

1. Pathfinder Beginners Box—I haven’t messed around with 2E if there is a BB for it yet, I don’t know. I really like the 1E one because it essentially offers up all one needs to know in one easy to use box with a map and paper-minis. It is rule light in a sense, but you could play this BB and shift over to just about any other D20 system. It also has those props and visually stimulating character sheets and artwork that really helps you to “sell” the hobby.

2. Index Card Roleplaying Game—mentioned it already this go, but I think it’s good because it’s self-contained and it strips down RPGs—primarily D&D 5E— to it’s most essential and intuitive form. I actually like ICRPG best of all in some ways but the PF:BB gives you props whereas ICRPG has you create your own…which can also be fun, but we don’t want to overwhelm anyone just starting out.

Any of the Runehammer Games are good to go for beginners. If you want some cyberpunk style action try ‘Altered State’ which I haven’t been able to play yet, but which I have read through. It is so much easier than Cyberpunk:2020, but I envision putting the CP:2020 lore—along with upcoming RED and CP:2077—in the background but using these AS mechanics.

3. Faery's Tale Deluxe—another good one, particularly for kids just starting out. The suggested age range begins at 6. The subject matter is more kid friendly fantasy, but I think there are quite a few adults that like it too.

4. Ryuutama—I’m an early Western convert to this Japanese TTRPG and never miss a chance for proselytizing. This game is about traveling and is often described as Myazaki meets The Oregon Trail. The subject matter is definitely kid and beginner friendly and even comes with built-in mechanics for a GM controlled character that sticks with and helps the PCs and some simple town and world building elements that PCs can join in with. The combat system is very much simplified like an old NES JRPG, but the magic system can be deceptively complex for a kid or beginner as magic tends to be in all systems.

5. Dungeons and Dragons 5E Starter/Essential Set—The starter set for 5th isn’t bad at all for beginners, comes with a dice set, and one of the best starting adventures. It’s bare bones when it comes to other swag though. The PF:BB gave more bells and whistles. I understand the essential set is a little better, but also costs a little more. I don’t think you could go wrong with either. I would say one of the better ones for beginner adults. It’s not necessarily little kid friendly and yes, the magic system is out there at times, but kind of fun altering and figuring out. It probably won’t be too long before 6th edition starts being heard of in the distance, but worth leaning the 5E way and lore behind it because it’s most likely what you’ll end up playing.

Honorable mention:

MÖRK BORG a new and highly-stylized—if you can get the print copy—rules light dystopian fantasy setting that purposefully tries to be all the bad things RPGs were accused—framed if you will—of being back in the 80’s. Doesn’t make the cut because it might scare away the ones that don’t realize how tongue-in-cheek it is especially kids and their parents.

My Little Pony: Tails Equestria—I can’t include it because I haven’t been able to play or read through the system. I’d love to do it though. Essentially light D&D set in the MLP:FiM universe. Appealing to kids of all ages.

Meddling Kids—Been around for a while now and is good for kids 7 and up. I have read through this one, but haven’t been able to play. It is simplified and has a mechanic similar to Ryuutama wherein a GM controlled ‘wild card’—think Scooby or Captain Caveman—helps the PCs. For me it seemed a little too easy and not close enough to the kind of play that I’ve encountered at least. I’m also not sure how many kids are into the Hannah-Barbara Saturday morning type shows nowadays.

Alright, that does it for today and the half-way point. We’ll try to do it again tomorrow.

RPG A Day 2020: Banner

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 14—Banner

I like to hit these every day when this time of year comes around. I don’t have much to say about banner though.

I decided to make a banner instead and talk briefly about a good source I’ve found for visuals online.  https://www.canva.com

There is a free option and a paid option with an easy interface. I’ve always stuck with the free. I created this banner using that site. That’s all for today.
 

RPG A Day 2020: Day 13--Rest

RPG A Day 2020: Day 13—Rest

4:00 pm in the afternoon in China kind of late on  writing the entry today, but extremely early on the morning of the 13th back in the States. The topic is ‘Rest’ which I think is very important, but something I’ve been enjoying since January back before the pandemic struck as far as my RPG aspirations go. 

I truly have no upcoming plans to run games nor any prospective games to join. I was in a similar situation just last year when we first moved to China. The move to Beijing and the aforementioned Wuhan flu have proven to be just as challenging. There could be potential players at my new school…only time will tell. Roll*20 or similar virtual table-top? Maybe I’ll go back and try again, but I find the internet to be inconsistent in China and the players were inconsistent as well, so who knows.

What can we do with extended rest periods like these? Read…find a good RPG video game…watch some streaming games…discuss the hobby on RPGaDay…make plans for the next chance when play becomes available.

Not much to it today. Feel free to use any surplus time that you gained by not reading one of my long rants to have a bit of a rest yourse

RPG A Day 2020: Day 12--message

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 12—Message

When I think about message nowadays in the context of anything entertainment related, I unfortunately envision the “woke” / “Cancellation”/“Participation Trophy” culture.  If you’re one of my 15 or so regular readers—you are a strong and loyal group—or if you took the time to read my profile, then you know I embrace the deplorable term hoisted upon conservatives by Lady Hillary back in 2016. I don’t really like messages in my entertainment and usually the message amounts to propaganda and you can bet it usually leans to the left. I like my entertainment to be as neutral as it can be politically. We’re hopefully playing RPGs—and reading comic-books, listening to music and watching TV and movies for that matter—for entertainment, not for indoctrination.

I suppose I should point out the obvious and say that there are well known examples of all the media I just listed with “historic” and “cultural” importance that were purposely meant to deliver a message, but generally speaking the “very special” episodes of ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ that I had to put up with as a kid in the 1980’s were some of the worst I remember and any message they had only made me want to cringe. I get the same feeling from so many RPGs—there’s a whole drama with this culture involving comic-books, but it’s not Comic-A-Day—coming out these days with their “safe words”, sanitized presentations, and virtue signaling social media accounts. They aren’t quite selling—or not selling as it turns out—Gillette razor blades, but every time I read a tweet from these creators it makes me wonder whether or not I’m in the right hobby.

Much like an earlier entry this month, I do let the other shoe drop and ‘walk it back’ a little as the soy boys like to say because I like that in the case of RPGs that the table has become more inclusive because it gives me more chances to play. In my day there were almost no girls who liked to play aside from girlfriends and/or wives that were essentially dragged there. I like that we’re open to virtually all ages now. It has always been a thing for guys to never grow up or to have a second childhood, but nowadays it wouldn’t be embarrassing—except maybe to a surly teen—if a mom or grandma wanted to play. I like that. Believe it or not I also like the so-called ‘X’ Card. For all my bluster, anything beyond PG-13 in games I run happen below decks. However, it is still possible to be offensive and not even no it, so if one of the snowflakes flash the card or PM me with an ‘X’ I know to back off. 

If this entry has a message it’s to just have fun and know your table. If I had a message to the companies it is don’t preach to me and don’t imply that I’m a bad person for the way I play.

  

RPG A DAY 2020: Day 11--Stack

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 11—Stack

Another short one today.

There is a stack of new games—new to me at least—that I have yet to play. For better or worse it always seems that I end up playing the latest—and hopefully the greatest—edition of Dungeons and Dragons. There’s nothing wrong with that. Most adults really don’t have enough time to learn different rule systems, and the young whippersnappers usually don’t have the attention span needed to learn one system let alone multiples. Personally, I like reading them, but even I don’t have the time to read as much as I’d like. We have new platforms like Roll 20 and other virtual tabletops and meeting places, but if the players don’t have the material and are not willing to learn it, we never get very far into the stack.

One game from the stack is Index Card Role Playing Game, and I guess you could also include the sister supplement for D&D 5E called Hardcore Mode. They are both by the same author, Brandish Gilhelm, at Runehammer Games and can both be used to add very cool house rules and flavor to the D&D game. In fact, the former can help freshen any RPG, and is also a stand alone in its own right heading for its 3rd edition.

It’s the D&D Hardcore Mode that I’m most intrigued by for our purposes today because through various rule tweaks and refinements it does exactly what it’s supposed to and breathes new life into the familiar 5th edition game. It is a game—supplement if you prefer—that you can pull from the stack with little effort. The changes are minimal, but huge. The same is true of ICRPG itself and it’s amazing to me the way that Gilhelm is able to accomplish this. It doesn’t feel dumbed down in the least, and yet it has refined the gameplay and “fixed” a lot of what some find lacking in 5E. However, because it essentially remains 5E it becomes an easier sell for players that don’t want to try something completely new. Which do you think is an easier sell, Do you want to play ICRPG—which relatively few have heard of or Let’s play D&D but use the prison rules. I think that would get one game out of the stack. I don't think you can go wrong with any game or supplement from Runehammer Games, so check them out. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/10923/RUNEHAMMER-GAMES

RPG A Day 2020: Day 10--Want

 RPG A Day 2020: Day 10—Want

What I want is another three or four weeks off—what I’m getting is three or four weeks of orientation at my new school in Beijing in preparation for the new school year. It’s a big problem, but could be worse. In my case the old employer didn’t release the teachers until July 17th while my new employer released their teachers back on June 30th. I’ve enjoyed my three weeks off, but teachers usually expect a little more. One fact about being an international, expat teacher is that things are even crazier in some ways than they are for regular teachers and that summer break is a big part of getting one through the school year. Everything adds up, so I hope I don’t come up short in my abilities because I didn’t get enough downtime. 

As to RPG talk, today’s prompt ties in with another problem I come across as an expat. I want—in regard to Kickstarter projects and the like—almost everything that I see. I take PDFs here and there since I don’t have any choice in the matter, but I want hardcopies. I want the minis and the full backer packages. In China they aren’t easy to get. In my previous 9 years in the UAE I could get them, but often my shipping often cost more than the product. Alternatively, I have had my rewards sent  out to my U.S. address, but as of this writing, I’m on my third summer being unable to even visit the States—and I don’t get much time with my stuff when I do get to visit. I’m talking looking at it and unboxing it, not even a chance to play with the stuff. All of the material that I did have delivered to the UAE had to be shipped out in our first move out to China. It cost me an arm and a leg to bring the absolute cream of the crop. It was substantially less expensive to bring those items along on the current move to Beijing from Guangdong, but no less of a hassle. The rest of my precious treasure was literally packed into a treasure chest that I bought in the UAE and I sent it out to my wife’s childhood home in the Philippines. The things made it there, but that’s where it is staying for now sealed and unopened—several backed projects, Ravenloft board game, Dragonstrike Game, original Blood Bowl…I want all these things back, but for now I can’t have them.

I am making an attempt to buy something that I have wanted since the 1980’s and that would be Champions of the Galaxy over at:

https://filsingergames.com/champions-of-the-galaxy

It’s a wrestling game based in outer space. I’m working with the game’s creator who has been running the game and subsequent business since back in the 80’s in the hopes of getting the copy sent out to me in China. I’ll soon find what kind of headache it can be. I haven’t even successfully ordered the thing yet, and I have the feeling I may still be waiting for it when RPG a Day 2021 comes around. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 9--Light

RPG A Day 2020: Day 9—Light

I’ll do the easy thing today and make this the sister to yesterday’s entry.

After the Satanic Panic of the 80’s—which surprisingly still maintains a small residual effect here and there even today or at least as late as 2016 in my case—the hobby slowly came into the main stream.

As I mentioned yesterday, the D&D cartoon had already made it to Saturday mornings right in the thick of 80’s panic, but more and more benchmarks appeared to normalize the hobby here are a few that I remember in the 90’s to the 00’s not necessarily in order:

1. Mass Produced Boardgames—these included: Heroquest, Dragonstrike, Battlemaster, Nightmare—complete with a video “Gate keeper” who acted a lot like a Dungeon Master, and any number of those I’m forgetting.

2. Video Game RPGs—Far too many series to list and still extremely popular. MMORPGs based off of the table-top RPGs helped to refuel interest in the table top and vice versa. D&D licensed products, Final Fantasy and other single-player RPG series were heavily influenced by the table top as well.

3. Card Games—Particularly, but not exclusively, Magic: The Gathering, became extremely popular for a time, and although I won’t take the time to research and confirm, I’m fairly sure that Magic remains WOTC’s top product.

4. Open License—In the late 90’s early 00’s when the open license came out, it seemed every company or IP was coming out with a D20 based RPG. I remember anime games, wrestling games, revivals of games like Deadlands getting the D20 make over. It kind of flooded the market, but it was a definite precursor to what happens today.

5. Movies—Those D&D movies—such as they were—and the much better Lord of   the Rings trilogy—brought an interest in fantasy back to the mainstream. If there’s one thing D&D the table top game does well, it’s fantasy.

All of those things and more laid the foundation of what we have today. We’re all living today, so I’ll be brief, but I’ll still recount what we have: the advent of virtual table tops, the prolific rise of self-publishing and project funding projects like Kickstarter, the so-called ‘let’s play’ videos that eventually led to streaming RPGs like Critical Role and quite possibly the most important, a well-received 5th edition of D&D being released in 2014. These are the things that brought RPGs into the light of the mainstream. We went from devil worshiping allegations to having a My Little Pony version of the game. I sometimes wish the hobby had it’s teeth—check out Mork Borg if you haven’t—but the trade off of having more players in the pool is one I’m glad to make.  

RPG A Day 2020--Day 8: Shade

 RPG a Day 2020: Day 8—Shade

This is a tough one. I’m going to look at shade as a place outside of the sunlight or else in relative darkness. RPGs—and other “geeky” hobbies were in the shade for a long time…most of my life in fact. 

If you weren’t around in the 80’s, then you missed whole “Satanic Panic” one of the few times that RPGs—particularly Dungeons and Dragons—had the spotlight shining directly on them. Most, if not all, of that publicity was negative. It’s all well document and I leave it to the reader and the search engine of their choice should they wish to read more about it. I was a kid during that time, so it remains interesting to me.

Apart from one horrid year in Alabama, my childhood was spent in slightly less horrid conditions in Georgia. I remember as a very young kid when the D&D cartoon came out that a parent from up the street thought that it was devil worship. They were okay with He-Man, but not D&D. This is around the same time that I have the possible ‘Mandella Effect’ memory of buying a D&D thieves supplemental when my brother and I made a first—failed—attempt at playing. Apart from that, there really weren’t many opportunities to play.

When I made it to the teen years, most of the time I was running for my brother and one of his friends—I’m four years older than he is, and if I remember correctly, the friend was even younger than that. We mostly did superhero or wrestling based games. The ‘satanic’ shade had pretty much been lifted but the nerd/geeky uncool shade was still around. Eventually, my brother would have lost interest and we moved from his little friend. My RPG aspirations would go to video games exclusively until I finally got out of high school. 

Way back in my RPGaDay ramblings I talked about my gaming during those years.   You could look in my archives if my writing is appealing to you, but I won’t re-recount things here. It just feels so strange today for persons of my age or older to see the hobby that was once so obscure and something we did in the shadows that you wanted to keep secret become something that is completely main stream. 

RPG a Day 2020: Day 7--Couple

Day 7 of RPG a Day and today’s topic is ‘Couple’.

My wife and I have been a married couple for seventeen years now. I’ve played some RPGs and board games with RPG elements over those years, but she is the type of gamer that wants to win. There’s really no traditional “winning” in RPGs, so she doesn’t get the point of playing. She also gets mad when she’s exploring and a trap gets her. I have higher hopes for playing with my daughter. No worries, we share other interests and she knew I was a player when she married me.

This past year I played with a couple for the first time in a regular game. Their names were Josh and Becky and they were from Canada. They played a brother and sister in game—male human and female tiefling  (adopted)—and although they were obviously a couple outside of play it didn’t stop male characters and NPCs from hitting on the girl. Both were brand new to table-top play. We had a DM who was patient—and quite good—with the new players and they picked up on how to play easily. For the most part we played weekly for one semester. Then, the Chinese New Year break came around and in our last session—who would have guessed—we had a TPK. Becky had already made plans to drop to “special guest star” because she wanted to take some difficult math courses. As for the group, we were full of plans to continue with new campaigns on our return from the break. Then the Wuhan Flu came around…

We never played again but I did manage to run into the pair before they returned to Canada. They had decided to return home after having taught here in China for years previously. I hope they find another group to play with. 

RPG a Day 2020: Day 6: Forest

RPG a Day 2020 and Day 6 is ‘Forest’. 

There’s an old joke that we educators tell stating that the only good things about being a teacher are July and August. Over my decade of being employed in the “noble profession” the humor, if any, found in that joke has diminished over the years as the number of days we work in July has seemed to stretch out more and more and the time we’re expected back from “summer” break is earlier and earlier. More depressing is the fact that the joke used to tell about three good things when teachers could also include June on the list. As my vacation for 2020 rapidly comes to an end having been hamstrung by the Wuhan Flu outbreak and another big move, I’m reminded of some of my better vacations from a few years back. I’m not going to turn this entry into a big slide show, but I’m including two pics from one of our trips out to Canada.

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park has a forest that you can walk over. It was an amazing place and put me in mind of any number of fantasy villages that I’ve visited during my gaming. Planet Endor for sure. I also had a brush with fame as my cousin and I definitely saw Helena Bonham Carter out there. We didn’t bother her though—had my wife been facing that way, I’m sure we would’ve gotten photographic proof of the meeting, but I rarely approach celebs unless they are pro wrestlers in which times I can’t help myself. 

The next one should be from Whistler Mountain if it’s from the proper folder. Bears and wolves in this area although it’s a big and popular resort. 

Finally, a shot from the Underground river in the Philippines. Not exactly a forest, but it really evokes a lot of adventuring I’ve done at the table. Tons of bats in here and the guano to go with it. 

Good stuff if you can do it. I haven’t run into too many fantasy creatures, but going into the environments in real-life can help one to get a feel for the game locations. I suggest visiting forests, mountains, and anything else you can. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 5--Tribute

For day five the topic is ‘tribute’. I would use this day as a remembrance of someone I’ve lost with an RPG connection. Fortunately, all of my gaming friends are still above ground at the time of this writing as far as I know. If I’ve lost any of the semi-anonymous Roll 20 players I’ve gamed with over the years, I sincerely hope they are playing a great campaign in the sky, but I really don’t know enough to pay tribute to them. This goes for game creators that have passed as well. There are better tributes for them on the web, and my own knowledge would lack in comparison. That means I’ll pay tribute to a favorite of mine, my Dad.  The best episodes of Good Times were when James Evans—the dad—was still around. Well, a lot of the best episodes from the Mark Markham show are in the years when the dad was still around too—season 40 when young, baby Chloe shows up and Mark becomes the dad not withstanding of course.

My Dad never got into the hobby or much of any other as I can remember. No time for it really.  He worked 40 hrs a week at one job in addition to any part-time/odd jobs he could pick up. It wasn’t as hard to raise a family of four in the 80’s in this manner, but it wasn’t a comfortable way to live even back then. I think I previously relayed the story of one time when he tried playing the old TSR Marvel Superheroes game with me and my little brother. Dad played as the Hulk and he roamed the city looking for gang members and said he wanted to “Stomp ‘em!” Now, there was a little more to it that I’ll leave out  since I don’t want my Dad getting “cancelled” by the SJWs a decade after his passing, but I’ll leave it to your imagination. It was (somewhat) acceptable humor in the 80’s and he mainly said such things to get me and my brother laugh. It certainly worked back then. 

I don’t remember if I’ve told where I got that MSHRPG set from. Well,  Dad took the pair of us to Dragon*Con in Atlanta. Primarily, it was to add to my comics collection. I can’t remember if that was the year I bought a ton of Judge Dredd comics or not as those early Dragon*Cons tend to run together—even back when I was far too young to drink. He did a lot of things like that for the two of us. I didn’t get my driver’s license until age 18, so he must have taken us to more than one. When dad took us my brother and I really didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t go to the panels or any cosplay stuff. We went directly to the dealer’s room and hung out there the entire time. It was in the dealer’s room that one of the TSR guys sold me on the set playing me through a quick scenario as The Thing. I read through the rule book and judges guide again and again over the months and years that followed—and sometimes freshen up on it today.

I remember one of those reading occasions being in the backseat of a car as my Dad drove the family on a non-Dragon*Con related summer vacation to one of the State Parks in Georgia. For those of a certain age, you know how boring a road trip could be back then. Looking at scenery as it goes by can only hold a kids attention for so long, so I was glad to have something to read. I remember seeing the waterfalls there and that there was some problem with the area that kept us from swimming, but we had some kick-ass ice-cream. We didn’t have much money to spend, but Dad—and Mom who is still with us BTW—tried to make memories with us as much as they could. So, in my entry I pay tribute to Dad a man that showed me how to have fun and create memories. I can’t think of any skills as essential as those for any GM—or teacher come think of it. Thanks Dad. 

RPG a Day 2020--Day 4--Vision

For RPG a Day 2020 episode four and the prompt is vision. Sadly, as seems to be the general theme of 2020 itself everything has a negative feel to it. However, if one can get one’s head around a lot of the mess that’s going on both in the world and in one’s personal life, one can still have a positive vision for the future.

For my part and in regard to the hobby—that is why we’re here this month after all—I can envision a time when my daughter will be old enough to play RPGs with me. At age five—all too soon to be six—she already makes up interactive stories with me such as exploring an island for pirate treasure or a fun game we have where different people call us up on the phone.  As one who reads different rule books and the like even for games I have no intention of playing, it’s funny that I have more of her interest doing a ‘theater of the mind’ style with basically no rules. She does like looking at maps and drawing already, but it’s just as off the rails as you may expect with a free wheeling five year old’s mind paired with a scatterbrained 46 year old one.

With our recent move to Beijing she will also have a more populous group of English speaking youngsters than we’ve had before. The more young friends she makes and the more fun she has with me running small adventures, the more likely that I’ll have an all new play group if she wants to share the experience with them. When and if this vision becomes a reality, Ii will be different from any other role playing I’ve done. I can also envision further into the future and wherein she eventually becomes my equal but ultimately surpasses me and leaves the RPG hobby in the dust heap. Even if she doesn’t become a lifer like me, I like to think she’ll at least look back on the games we play as the time she bonded with her dad. You never know, maybe she’ll be a lifer too. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 3--Thread

Day 3: Thread

Only a short post today, but it still counts. I’d rather be positive, but much like yesterday’s post, negativity has to creep in sometimes because I’m a realist. I sometimes feel my ability to participate in the hobby is hanging by a thread. Let’s list some more obstacles:

1. China and bad internet connections—keeping me from running or participating in a virtual table top group…or even one shots.

2. Pandemic—this is blocking the live table action.

3. Time sink—the danger of RPGs has never been Satan and his demons, but rather the time involved if you choose to be a regular player. My daughter will soon be six. A bit too young to play yet, but well old enough to want my attention. The job is also taking their 40 hrs from me each week. Maybe even more since they want me to learn Chinese and IB teaching style.

4. Product—I want hard copy. In China I’ve found it hard to get packages sent out to me even before the pandemic. I’m going to try and put that to the test soon, but since I’m a nomad I’m always having a hard time carrying my stuff. I have a literal treasure chest full of material that I want to keep sitting out in the Philippines right now. Who knows when I’ll get the stuff back?

5. Money sink—not as big a deal as it used to be, but I sometimes feel my money would be better spent elsewhere.

So, my hobby is hanging by a thread, but no worries that thread is still strong. 

RPG A Day 2020--Day 2: Change

Today’s topic is ‘Change’. In real life most changes are not to my liking. Depending on how old you are a guy my age—46 years young—is old enough to be saying “Back in my day…”, but I always felt that would be a phrase I’d be using in my “golden years” somewhere down the line. However, that wasn’t the case. Although I continue in my blind refusal to see the decade of my childhood as a “simpler” time—that’s reserved for the 1950’s in my mind—there is no doubt that most of us who were kids in the 80’s never saw the changes in culture and attitude coming. 

Certain aspects of the inclusive culture are fine by me. I’m okay with girls being more comfortable playing—saves me from being a female character…for about two minutes. I never had any racial problems in the hobby—aside from one incident that I detailed in an earlier RPG a Day entry some years back. Although I don’t agree with the various alternative lifestylers out there, I’ve played with many over the years, and have had just as much fun as I would with them as I would anyone else at the table. Most of all, it’s nice to see more and more people not associate roleplaying with devil worship like they did in the 80’s. 

However, there are some PC changes that I don’t agree with and they range from simple over correction to outright pandering. Here are a few changes that I hate:

1. Sanitization of terminology—the big one for me is changing the term ‘race’ for ‘legacy’ or whatever other nonsense term they want to use. The human race covers all of humanity as in real-life. The fantasy races—even the humanoid ones—aren’t just culturally different as they are in real-life. These races often have alien minds completely different from a human being. They would kill and eat you—and the god they worship would be honored in their doing so. This also includes the forced “diversity” baked into the rulebooks and lore.

2. Company political statements—I don’t give a rat’s ass. Make games that are fun. Now it seems that every company has to go on their social media account and make an apology tour to possible detractors who were offended by their product while at the same time preaching to the rest of us to be better people. It’s pandering and virtue signaling at its worst. I don’t like the real world creeping into the game. The hobby is there for a distraction from these problems.

3. Company hiring practices—I must acknowledge this because of the infamous stories I’ve read. Talented creators not being hired so that a company can look good by having more diverse creative teams. The companies are worried more about meeting quotas than they are about hiring the best creators for the job.

4. Cancel Culture—the opposite side of number 3. A bunch of SJWs get into an uproar because of something some guy said one time…sometimes years ago. Very often the “offensive” thing said is only offensive to soy boys and snowflakes to begin with. Invariably it seems to me that the companies will often bow to this ultra small percentage of squeaky wheels—many of which had no intention of supporting the product in the first place. 

5. General Sanitized Product—I hate how everything now is generally safe and PC. I would also call it generic and bland. With very few exceptions it seems everything now is meant to be made for everybody and we can all sit around and sing songs of peace together with sunshine and rainbows lest we offend someone. Some things should have an edge. I see the same trends in all of my hobbies: wrestling, comic-books, video games and RPGs. All of them to varying degrees are woke and preachy. In other words, they aren’t fun or interesting anymore. 

The good thing about RPGs is in spite of all these problems, the DM/GM and the table get to decide how PC they want to be. Barmaids are still getting pinched and groped, orcs are still brutal savages and the world is one spell away from being taken over by devils because some things never change. 

RPG A Day--Day 1--Beginning

It’s that time of year again. My viewers—such as they are—tend to go up during RPG-a-Day and some even stick around although I’m not really a prolific writer apart from this time of year. For those rejoining me—I’m doing well, still trying to lose weight. I’m sticking with the DDPY program which has given me quite a bit of success albeit non-scalable. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t do so well at my first school in China. However, I will soon be starting year two in a brand new school in Beijing itself. Let’s hope for good things out of this new beginning.

Speaking of Beginning, that is the topic for the day. Last school year actually had a promising beginning and I was able to find a live table group. It turned out being one of the best groups I’ve ever been a part of. I was complimented by one of the new players a couple of weeks ago when she gave thanks for playing such a fun and memorable character. I’ve talked about Gnissa Fumblebuck—the gnome bard— here before as she is one of the troupe of characters I bring out from time to time. She was pretty gonzo in this version of the Gnissaverse. I had to be careful not to tick off my new GM by being too much of a scatterbrain, but she was borderline kinder in this game. I was definitely wrecking things with her not the least of which was letting a bear loose to roam the city because he looked sad locked up by himself in a cage.  I’m glad people liked it. Sadly, she was a part of a TPK in our last session, but only because I didn’t let her live on as a coward.  I’m fairly confident that she could have gotten away from that last encounter, but I was equally convinced that the GM wanted to wrap the campaign up. It was a mystery type scenario and unfortunately, we the players aren’t always as intelligent as the character stat would suggest and it was becoming something of a slog.

Unfortunately, our beginning campaign also became the ending campaign. We’re all international teachers and lots of the guys—including the GM and the host—decided to vacation overseas during Chinese New Year. When the pandemic struck, they were unable to get back into China. For better or worse, I didn’t leave the country, but time just marched on and we were never really able to get it back together. I’ve always said that holidays are the bane of RPG groups, but now I can say pandemics don’t do them any favors either. 

June 2020 Ramblings: The Dystopian Present

Been a while since my last update. Nothing much has changed. Now that we're soon to be entering the month of June I'll say that 2020 has pretty much been a waste of a year so far. As a pro-teacher here in China, I can extend that to say the 2019/2020 school year has been a waste of a year so far to be truthful. Luckily, I've still been getting paid all along which can't be said for everyone.

As I'm writing this I am more or less on my ninth month of doing DDPY continuous. I started around this time last year but missed a lot during the summer break transition from working in the UAE to China and then a big adjustment related to that. All in all, I'm afraid it's not the magic pill that I was hoping it would be. I intend to stick with it as I see real "non-scalable" results--I can do a downward dog with both heels on the ground. I can do a broken hood ornament--which is very difficult. I can really do almost any of the moves or a modification thereof. Just today I tried a little Les Mills Combat--which I haven't done in the year I switched to DDPY and I can totally hit round house kicks and side kicks with both legs which even as a twenty-something I was only able to really do with my right leg. Still not pretty, but I can totally do it. Unfortunately, I'm still not losing the weight and that's what I really want to do. The problem is, has been and remains the diet. For June I'm getting back on the horse yet again.

The variant I'm going for this time is to pace myself for six weeks. I have a TOEFL class that I'm stuck teaching for six weeks. My daughter has a ballet class that lasts six weeks and I will be moving to Beijing in about eight weeks--I expect the last two weeks to be hectic as well as miserable whereas the prior six will be merely miserable. During this time I will use all of the willpower that I can muster to avoid:

1. Sweets--desserts of all kinds. Colas of all kinds. Even limiting my fruit or juice intake. I may still slip in some Peanut Butter here and there, but since that's a trigger for me, I will have to do so carefully.

2. Dairy--Again, pizza is a trigger food, cheese, ice-cream, all of these things. I don't drink much milk out here in China, so I can avoid it that way, but I'm not even going to add powdered milk to anything if I can help it.

3. Gluten--primarily to avoid drinking my calories through beer and to keep away from the bread and pasta. If I can't fully eliminate it from my diet--crackers with my chili, noodles in the soup here in China, or a breadstick here and there is a compromise I'm willing to make.

4. Fast Food--I plan to completely eliminate for six weeks. I'll go to a restaurant or let my wife fix a hamburger for me if I must, but for these six weeks none of the chain fast-food shops will be visited.

5. General Snacks--What wasn't covered above--chips mostly.

I'm going to try to double my workouts...one in the morning and one in the evening. As before with DDPY I want to hit the wake-up every day even if it's a day off. I'm also going to try to incorporate the Les Mills Combat program here and there. Finally, I intend to walk down the stairs every morning when I leave the apartment. I did that on a recent fire drill and it made me about as tired as the DDPY routine does. I dare not try to climb up every afternoon, but you never know where things may lead--I live on the 24th floor BTW.

Last but not least, melatonin. I've thought about it and even said it time and time again that if I can't sleep--due to my empty belly and love of food--that I should take melatonin and knock myself out. This time I'm going to do it. It's not supposed to be addictive and it does put me to sleep rather quickly own the occasions that I've taken it.

...and that's it. I'm going to try to update the blog daily even if it's just to repeat the same thing time and time again. I won't publish daily entries until the end of the experiment, but  I'll do a Twitter update daily primarily for myself, but I sometimes get a response or two that helps inspire me to keep going. Today's weigh in: 117.2 KG...258.38177 pounds...but that's only 18.4243 stone

Some Corona Update

I live and work in China. We're far from Wuhan but we've had cases pop up out here in our own apartment complex/town/down the block, but the entire community has never been put on the restrictions that I see and read about in the States. We've been dealing with a 'soft lockdown' situation since mid-January. As a teacher I'm able to work online, but most regular workers have been at their jobs for at least a month now. Places like McDonald's and 7-eleven never closed. We have yet to have any shortages of any kind and there was no panic buying. We knew that the States would both over and under react to the thing and it seems they have.

There have been instance where my "American Senses" started tingling. We are required to wear the masks, we are required to have our temperatures taken and the powers that be cancelled large gatherings when the outbreak first started. Overall though, we're generally left to our own devices. Who's to say if these precautions helped stop the spread of the virus or not, but nobody in my family has gotten sick.

The government didn't shut down restaurants or stores--some individuals who were sick kept their shops closed because they were ill, the movie theaters were and unfortunately still are closed, and our local shuttle busses were shut down for a while, but apart from Wuhan itself, nowhere near the level of what's happening in the States, and it shouldn't be a controversial statement to say we're living in a communist country where the thing originated. Why is the American government taking such extreme actions? I can only think of it as a power grab.

Local teachers are returning to the empty campus that is my school this Monday to prepare for a full return. International teachers--who are in country--and the students themselves may return on the week of the 27th pending the success of the trial run. Once this happens--if there are no snags or "second wave"-- I would say that we'll be almost completely back to normal. The only thing that would remain to be done is to open the borders back up to international visitors and to get the movie theaters running again. That's a Great Wall of Text just to say, "Hang in There". It's not quite the end of the world yet.

DDPY: Beginner Program Week 13

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not the most disciplined blogger when it comes to doing these things, and they are as much for me as they are for my loyal 15-20 viewers that I normally get. Writing just helps me to focus my scatter brain--publishing it gives me some accountability, and no topic requires accountability more so than my weight loss journey.

For nearly a year I've been working on the DDPY program. I really like it and I think it's going to be the way I finally make it to my goals. This report documents my results from the current campaign which only began in January 2020 when I bought the app. I have been working consistently with the program using the old videos and the free work outs DDP broadcasts here and there since September 2019 and off and on since last spring. Before that I've tried all kinds of programs with limited success. At one point going through the Insanity program  I actually lost--to hear the scales tell it--between 70 and 80 pounds, but it never looked like the dramatic weight loss that it might sound like. I think I was what real body builders call "skinny fat". I've long since gained that back, I don't think I've gained any additional. My body seems to have a hard time changing for good or ill. I have had a pot belly for as long as I can remember no matter what exercise  program I'm doing or not doing. There's an old American presidential debate wherein one of the burns is "...it's the economy, stupid!" well in my case "...it's the food, stupid!" I can at least identify the issue, the problem is doing something about it.

There is one more issue--at least one--that I see as a block to my goals. That's the teaching lifestyle. I work normally in what I would call three to four month chunks throughout the year before having a longer than average holiday. For the most part we get a winter break, a spring break, and an extra long summer break. The point being I usually behave during my working time, but then it falls apart big time especially during the holidays and summer months--Spring is usually only a week for teachers, so I don't fall off the wagon as much, but you'd be surprised. The break wouldn't be so bad, but when you come back from the break it also takes time to get back on track--at times, it's taken up to a month for me to ramp things back up...you start doing good again....then, here comes another break. I don't know if you've noticed, but at least for me a month of down time will go by in the blink of an eye vs. one week of consistent exercise that drags by wherein I think I've achieved some wondrous goal...and I expect amazing results from it. Again, good to be able to identify the problem, but how to address it is the issue. BTW I haven't been a school teacher all my life, I've found my civilian job even more detrimental to a regular workout schedule. Maybe if you were independently wealthy the workouts would be easier, but I imagine then you'd always be out enjoying your money and would never come back from vacation mode.

Beginner Program is Thirteen Weeks:

My weight stayed a consistent 113-114 KG. If my stomach is completely empty I can get it down to 112. To keep you from having to convert--that's still on the right side of 250 pounds but just barely. I have been working out 76% of the time--that is 60 out of 79 calendar days. Keep in mind the programs do offer days off, so I'll probably never have 100% and that I count a day as being successful as long as I at least do the 'Wake-up'. I try to follow the prescribed workout for each day, but often I will work out a bit on the 'day off' and I also switch out the prescribed workout here and there. Diet has been horrible. With my self-assessment I rated it...28% eating properly. I will also confuse everyone here by pointing out this progress assessment is "homework" given at the beginning of week 13, so technically I still have a week to turn things around--I'm including the last couple of weeks from December to do the full 13 week stats.

Positives:  (no-scalable) more flexible--although for a fat guy I was already pretty flexible, consistent exercise,  clothes fitting more loosely, overall better posture and focus. Stamina/Cardio seems better but it is inconsistent. Keeping my diet/exercise journal updated. Semi-regular accountability on Twitter--if not in the blog. One big thing was last Christmas we went to Disneyland HK and I fit on all of the rides. No walk of shame for me--which has happened at Six Flags a time or two.

Negatives: The scale. The dietary lapses. Sometimes I don't have common sense. I don't think too many people stop between work outs for a BBQ sandwich, but I have and more than once. I think it was French toast during a morning session. Very Bad. Drinking my calories.

To Do: Everything is about the big health picture with DDPY not just the scale. There are many things that I need to do. Redouble the dieting effort. DDP does no gluten and no dairy himself. Can't say I can do that, but I always wanted to try at least a month and see if it made a difference. I still need the heart monitor. I'm just going to get the Apple Watch, but I need to make sure it's in English so I can use it. Kind of risky buying in China. I listened to and read DDP's own suggested material during the beginner program, but there are several inspirational and informative movies that I haven't watched and I really need to do that for the emotional and mental game that goes along with the program.

Summary: I think it's a good start and when I go to intermediate for the next 13 weeks I really want to to focus on what I'm eating and drinking. I am keeping the food journal but I need to be deliberate with it and write these things down before I eat them. Just like you say out loud when you are formatting a hard drive, I need to say out loud--"I'm eating a Big Mac. This puts me further from my goal" and similar before I eat it. Even if I do eat the thing, at least I've fully thought it through and didn't just stick it in my mouth.

Onward and Upward--who knows when I'll blog again, but I'm consistently on Twitter. The next update on DDPY might not be for another 13 weeks.