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 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 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 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. 

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

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.