D&D and the rising pandemic

[Zardnaar]

Utawwdangit!

Utah group organizes 'flash mobs' at grocery stores to oppose face masks

A Utah group has been organizing what they call flash mobs, where they show up to grocery stores without face masks. Caption: KUTV: Kelly Vaughen reports. The group “Defending Utah” has organized the demonstrations, and said they have plenty more planned for the future. Supporters who...

kutv.com

Sigh.

I thought there were a few sane countries out there but it's a lot fewer than I thought.

Numbers going up in Japan and Australia. I think Australia will lick it down ok, Europes reopening to soon IMHO.

Went out for breakfast with inlaws today. Father in law is in his 60s not best of health so we wouldn't do it in most if the world.

First in the door, they got around 25-30 people 930-10:30 am Sunday morning.

Everything's open no restrictions.

Wonder if that's unique atm. Australia it's regional, not sure about Vietnam.

Our local right wingers were pushing for reopening asap using Sweden and Australia as examples. Proportionally Sweden was worse than USA, Aussies still doing well by international standards but has locked down Melbourne and Victoria (Melbourne is in Victoria).

They rolled the leader of the opposition he became electoral poison.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I don't know what that breakfast is, but...

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't know what that breakfast is, but...

Pancakes, yogurt, berries In a berry compote.

$8 USD approx. Was very good.

Winter but that's the Pacific ocean in the background.

In lockdown they were being renovated so reopened post lockdown.

 

[GreyLord]

(So since this is technically also a D&D thread....)

Is anyone finding that groups are shying away from "plague" as a theme in games they're playing or otherwise aware of?

I have no input on the matter, as I'm not actively playing. I'm just curious about others' experiences.

I haven't actually thought of running a plague game recently. Perhaps that's due to the virus, I don't know. The thought hadn't occurred to me until you mentioned it.

Perhaps I haven't really contemplated it due to the situation today.

 

[Cadence]

(So since this is technically also a D&D thread....)

Is anyone finding that groups are shying away from "plague" as a theme in games they're playing or otherwise aware of?

I have no input on the matter, as I'm not actively playing. I'm just curious about others' experiences.

Investigating why an awful illness has infected their entire village (except them; have described the symptoms as stomach affecting and exhausting) is the hook for the game I started running for my 10yo and two of his friends this month.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

... or riots.

It's been shown that the protests and riots don't increase the spread of the virus in a significant manner.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The problem being, of course, that the number of people who would become destitute and homeless before action actually had an effect would be very large.

And other countries have found out ways to avoid this, I'm sure we could in America as well.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

(So since this is technically also a D&D thread....)

Is anyone finding that groups are shying away from "plague" as a theme in games they're playing or otherwise aware of?

I have no input on the matter, as I'm not actively playing. I'm just curious about others' experiences.

Speaking of this, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, which was released this year, has a starting adventure levels 1-3 where the players have to cure a disease, possibly getting infected as well. I read that, and immediately vowed to not use it this year, as it's a bit close to home.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I know. Beaches are filled, lakes are packed, people not wearing masks left and right. I don't understand what's going on. It's out of control and growing worse every day. I've had a lot of health problems this past year, I almost died in November, I do NOT want this thing as a new health problem, so I'm still quarantined and going stir crazy.

That sucks. A lot of members of my family are more likely to have a hard time with the disease, I have asthma and so do 2 of my sisters. A few other relatives have diabetes, one has a heart condition, so I've been really careful during this pandemic.

 

[briggart]

(So since this is technically also a D&D thread....)

Is anyone finding that groups are shying away from "plague" as a theme in games they're playing or otherwise aware of?

I have no input on the matter, as I'm not actively playing. I'm just curious about others' experiences.

Not really. Spoilers for GoS.

Spoiler

The PCs failed to find Oceanus and the weapons on the Sea Ghost. They figured the council would let them keep the ship and its content so they didn't bother to carefully search the ship. By the time they got back to town, met with the council and were told they were not actually going to get the ship, a couple of days had passed. They were offered some money for the cargo, but they figured out they could get more by directly selling the cargo, so by nighttime they came up with an excuse to get the two guards posted to the ship to allow them back on for a short time. The plan was for one of them to keep the guards distracted while the other would smuggle part of the cargo.

This time, the PCs found Oceanus, who I decided had died after a few more days without food and water. So they told the guard they found a body, but it looked like he had some kind of disease, and asked the guards to move farther from the ship and keep people away from the dock. They figured this would give them a better chance of stealing some of the cargo. The guards did follow PCs suggestion, but they also warned the council and a few minutes later Eda stormed on the ship with the town cleric on tow, who examined the body and failed to find any disease. The PCs claimed they had never seen a sea elf and assumed that his skin color was a sign of illness, and managed to convince Eda they were on the level. But they were forced to leave the boat.

The incident was closed, but rereading Chapter 1, I noticed one of the Scarlet Brotherhood events:

Tainted grain delivered by a merchant in league with the Brotherhood leads to an outbreak of plague.

The Brotherhood is now moving on with this, and will spin it to blame it on the body found on the Sea Ghost and the PCs.

 

[Umbran]

USA has declined to the point they can't refight WW2 again.

Economically speaking, at the start of WWII, we weren't at the point where we could fight WWII either. Wars that big change things.

 

[Umbran]

i get the frustration, but ...
Most people in the US do not see "what does the rest of the world think?" as something to worry about.
A world-wide trade boycott will turn into a US drive for more Made in USA products: we can take care of our needs ourselves.

Except the life we've come accustomed to is no longer supportable without international trade. For example, all the electronics that run our current world are dependent on raw materials we don't have much of on US soil.

Coffee. Imagine asking the US to go without coffee!

 

[Eltab]

Coffee. Imagine asking the US to go without coffee!

I've done that all my life; coffee just doesn't taste good to me.

Americans used to drink tea like ... well like Englishmen ... until the early 1770s. Then a nasty disagreement sprang up and tea consumption dropped way off.
I imagine a coffee-supplying nation today trying to use coffee imports as an arm-twister on Americans will just make their product unpopular, not encourage the change they were expecting.

 

[Zardnaar]

Economically speaking, at the start of WWII, we weren't at the point where we could fight WWII either. Wars that big change things.

Not strictly true. UK and French armaments orders had revived US production. When France was defeated the US government took over the orders and was providing lend lease before they entered the war.

After that it mostly was just paying for stuff. Except synthetic rubber that was a major new development.

The infrastructure was there, they did build some new stuff. That's all gone now the USA can't match WW2 Aluminum iirc even if they came up with the money.

They paid Boeing and Ford to produce stuff. They can't build an F22 that fast anymore or even the F35.

A tank cost the equivalent of a few hundred thousand dollars, a bomber a couple of million.

Back then the biggest oil producer was also the US. Might still be but proportionally speaking it was bigger.

Pre Covid US debt was over 100% of GDP, UK was also high. I'll have to find the exact figures but the debt load isn't that far off the war years.

UK finished paying off the war in 2006 iirc.

The US deficit spending is a lot more limited. NZ went into it with debt of 30% and our government can sustain things for 5-10 years and proportionally be in the spot the US was in March.

Unemployment is about half the US, projected to peak around 9%. Right now US is around 13% iirc.

Basically what they can do is a lot more restrained than say 2008.

 

[Umbran]

I've done that all my life; coffee just doesn't taste good to me.

Nor me, but the rest of the world seems to run on Starbucks and Dunkin'.

Americans used to drink tea like ... well like Englishmen ... until the early 1770s.

Yeah, but those habits are 250 years gone now. And, neither here nor there, because we dont' grow tea in the US either. So, we'd have to quickly develop a taste for Yaupon, the only known pant native to North America that produces caffeine...

 

[Hussar]

@Zardnaar - the point you seem to forget is that, unlike pre-WWII, the US outspends the entire planet in their military. By a considerable margin. All without raising taxes or any sort of austerity program.

They don't need WWII levels of production because they already far outstrip WWII levels of production.

 

[Zardnaar]

@Zardnaar - the point you seem to forget is that, unlike pre-WWII, the US outspends the entire planet in their military. By a considerable margin. All without raising taxes or any sort of austerity program.

They don't need WWII levels of production because they already far outstrip WWII levels of production.

True it's more of a example of USA being worse off.

The depression and war years are the only examples we really have with reliable data to compare with.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Japan is 'shocked' and furious at the US after a major coronavirus outbreak at 2 Marine bases in Okinawa — and says the US is not taking the virus seriously

"We now have strong doubts that the US military has taken adequate disease prevention measures," Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki said.

www.businessinsider.com

Apparently, this is us now.

 

[Hussar]

Good grief, I hadn't seen that one.

There just aren't any words anymore.

 

[Zardnaar]

The one I read earlier in the day.

Japan Governor Demands Increased COVID-19 Prevention Measures After 61 U.S. Marines Infected on Okinawa

The disclosure of the exact figures came only after Okinawa island's repeated requests to the U.S. military

time.com