We're something of an essential industry.  Petroleum products, and all.  So I'm still at work.  Don't know anyone sick, though.  And our office is on lockdown.  No walk-ins from the public.  We practice social distancing here.  Crossing our fingers. Knocking on wood.

My parents keep asking me to visit.  I'm like 'No there's an official global pandemic and it targets the elderly.  You two are 62 and 72.'

They dismiss it.  They're always watching propoganda brain poison on the TV so their sense of reality and what's happening in the world is completely broken.

But otherwise I am very comfortable hunkering down at home.  I have always loved days where I never need to get out of my pajamas.  Sort of naturally inclined to cozy in my burrow like a....not a badger.

I'm very busy, lots of mandatory OT. No days off in sight. But nothing too crazy going on, and the extra money is always nice.

Badgers!

Glad to hear you guys are doing well!  I do a lot of work from home anyway so there's not a ton different for me except that the courts are closed so there's less to do.

Three cheers for extra money, Kellan!  I guess we have a tidal wave of unemployment filings given the shutdown so gainful employment is always a plus.

Sorry to hear that about your parents, Liseth.  I hope they're staying in at least.

I'll cross my fingers for you too, Pisca.  :)

I’ve gone to working full time at home, and the schools here are shut down, which has been...interesting. Second that brain poison on TV. My mom is in the exact same boat. She and all her friends watch the exact same news and forward me the strangest conspiracy theories.

Has anyone else found they’re gaming more now?  My one regular face-to-face game went online, and another irregular game I was hosting that we played 1/month is now weekly, and I’m playing in another weekly game as well. Plus, I’ve had some old friends randomly call to invite me to one-off games. My kids not having after school activities gives me a lot more free time. Silver linings, I guess.

Oddly, I've noticed that some of the games that I'm in have slowed down.

Second.  It feels odd to me that games on RPoL would slow down in the current situation, but that's what I've seen too.  I think lots of folks just aren't in the mood to play games like this, despite so many being stuck at home.  I had one person drop from my game because he was sick, another who posts very irregularly because of bad health.

Cato must be the exception who proves the rule!

I have one game that is running like wildfire, but yeah, all the others have slowed to nearly a halt.

Maybe it’s different in that mine aren’t PbP but instead via Roll20 and voice chat.  I guess I could see both sides of the coin, but my gaming is one of the highlights of my week now. I love my kids and all, but spending all day with them and trying to work with them at home gets a little tiring after a few weeks.

I gotta say, watching the amount of time my sister-in-law spent with my nieces and nephews when they were growing up ...  Well, I have to hand it to her for the patience and dedication that she put in.  Can't argue with the results, though.  They are some amazing kids.

In reply to Pisca Neep Freemish (msg # 441):

Yeah, I (mostly) enjoy spending time with the kids, but *most* of that time is usually having fun, especially on the weekends.  Going to museums, going to parks, going to a farm that does u-pick and has a big play area for the kids.  But now basically being stuck in the house with everyone 24-7 makes it a little different.  I suppose the one break my wife and I get is our exercise: I did a 13 mile run yesterday, which got me out of the house and alone in my thoughts for 3 hours, which felt good.

It's funny, because I've even seen some homeschooling parents offering consolations on Facebook.  Basically saying this is hard on them, too, since they're usually scheduling things like museum tours and suck like for their kids, and now all that is cancelled.

One thing that I observed is that kids are constantly demanding attention.  I suppose some are able to entertain themselves.  But that was not so with my nieces and nephews.  Part of the entertainment absolutely *had* to involve mom or dad.  So, even outside of *Events*, there was never any free time.

I don't know that I could do that.

In reply to Pisca Neep Freemish (msg # 443):

That’s incredibly variable from kid to kid. I think one of the benefits of having multiple children (maybe especially twins) is that they’re able to entertain themselves, especially as they get older. But I have friends who put off having a second child for a long time because their first was so demanding. Even had one tell me his six year old was more work than his infant twins because, like you said, literally everything, even watching TV, had to involve a parent.

I think part of what we do is to kind of leave our kids be (for a reasonable period of time) if they’re entertaining themselves and not causing trouble. If we have to step in, what we make them do might not be as much fun as what they would choose to do themselves. But there’s a certain amount of direct contact each one also needs, and you can tell if they’re getting enough attention.

Argh...starting rereading some of our old threads last night, and the next thing I know it’s past midnight.

I know, right?  Happens to me all the time!

I'll admit I did go down the rabbit hole as well when we were discussing the potential resuming. :)

That can definitely happen!  It's hard to read only a few.

I'm glad both my kids are in high school; they can generally entertain themselves (although we're certainly hanging out more these days).  This whole lockdown thing would be much more difficult if they were, say, preschool or elementary school age.

In reply to The Raconteur (msg # 448):

Preach it!

I think in some ways, we actually have it easier than our friends with 1 kids. Our kids all have friends in quarantine with them, and their ability to play with their siblings makes it that much easier for my wife and I to work. (Okay, we’re letting them watch a lot more TV, too.)

Hey, anyone have time for a game?  I was thinking of running something, and instead of recruiting some random people, why not start with some of the best I’ve ever played with?

What did you have in mind?

In reply to Pisca Neep Freemish (msg # 451):

I don’t know. Ideally 5e as a system, though I’d be willing to do Pathfinder.  Flexible on adventure design. I have some ideas brewing that I could pitch, but reading all our past posts has made me want to run a game. Maybe using one of the PF APs?  Or another classic adventure, like Red Hand of Doom or even one of the newer 5e adventures. Probably starting there, but allowing the party to branch off if they wanted to run off the rails eventually.

Well, I wouldn't mind.

Ooooh; what did you expect?  Of course I have time for a game!  RPoL has slowed down to a crawl in many of the things I'm doing here anyway.

GM Cato, huh?  I bet the game is dark and mysterious!