sinanju

Oh, yeah. They have that at my local store as well. Red squares with footprints for people to stand proper distance from one another while waiting in line.

My local Albertsons has a clear plexiglass shield between the checker and the customer. They will bag your groceries if you accept paper bags from them; if you bring your own reusable bags, you have to bag them yourself.

But only if they can blame Republicans and/or Trump. I haven't watched television news or read a newspaper in decades (9/11 aside), and I'm happier for it. I can get any news I really need on the radio or the internet. I've been out of my house twice this week. Once to the grocery store for needed foodstuffs, and today to buy lunch from the Popeye's drive-thru before doing my laundry in an empty laundromat. Otherwise, I work from home M-F during the day and spend my evenings reading or watching tv or working on games. My girlfriend continues to work with COVID patients, so even when she's not working she can't visit. That sucks. Otherwise, I don't mind being alone most of the time.

As they should. Whether she has the virus or not, she's forcing the market to take precautionary action (tossing a lot of otherwise perfectly good food) that costs them money.

We could have, but we voted against her.

I threw out my idea (for dealing with multiple fantasy races) on another thread. They're all the creation of some ancient civilization (elder gods, traditional gods, ultra-tech/magical mortal civilization, whatever), and effectively different breeds of humanoid. Humans are what you get when any of the other races don't carefully police their bloodlines, i.e., mutts. The elves (and dwarves and goblins and et cetera) have specific appearances (as opposed to humans, who can vary widely) because that appearance is *the definition* of an "elf" or "dwarf" or whatever (again, like breeds of dog). Vary from it by too much, and you're considered a "half-elf" (etc). Vary even farther, and you're just another mutt (i.e., human). Some cultures practice infanticide on those who don't meet the criteria, others will simply banish you, or just view you as definitely a second-class citizen or worse, and would never let you marry their daughters. In this world, humans are more numerous than the other races (they can breed like rabbits and nobody cares--other races have to police such things, so tend to be fewer in number), but also the least respected--albeit, to quote the News Monster from Futurama, "numerous and belligerant." This is *why* elves are graceful and beautiful (they were playthings). Dwarves were bred to labor in mines and other enclosed places. Halflings were intended as quiet, unobtrusive servants). Giants, goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and the like were bred as cannon fodder. More exotic forms ( minotaurs, for instance) were bred to be hunted for sport. This rationale satisfies my desire to explain how and why so many different intelligent races co-exist.

Slaying Monsters for the Feeble, by Annette Marie. Second book in a series (the third drops on Thursday). The heroine, Robin, has accidentally become a Contractor (i.e., someone who holds a demon in thrall based on a contract). Contracting is a thing in her world, where magic is common and widely practiced (in secret), and demon summoning is well known and regulated by the magical authorities. Demons are bound by lengthy, detailed contracts in return for the summoner's soul when he/she dies. Except for Robin's demon. They made a very hasty verbal agreement to avoid both being killed by bad guys trying to bind the demon, and using her as their sacrifice. her demon is bound to "protect her" (as HE defines protecting her, since she didn't specify) in return for...cookies she bakes. (He likes her cookies, and she refused to part with her soul, and they were under severe pressure, so....) Unlike most bound demons, he retains free will and his magic, and if anyone finds out they'll both be put to death because an unbound (or loosely bound) demon is insanely dangerous. I like this series, which is a spin-off series of another set in the same world, following the adventures of Tori, a human (i.e. non-magical) bartender for one of the magical guilds, along with the three powerful (and hot, of course) mages she hangs out with.

Well, see, I'm not opposed to paying for access to an ongoing game like that. Sometimes. I've done so in the past, though I so seldom play computer games (especially online games) anymore that it wouldn't be worth the money now. It's discrete software packages (Office, Excel, publishing software, and so forth) that I refuse to pay for on an ongoing basis. Either I own it or I don't.

Yeah, that point for me was the end of S1 of LOST, and I did care. A lot. Because it meant a lot of the stuff we saw--the polar bear, the smoke monster, the hatch...ultimately meant nothing. And I didn't care much for the characters because they were (in my opinion) too stupid to live in most cases. Same reason I never got into The Walking Dead. I can't care about characters (and their conflicts, growth, relationships, etc) if I find them to be ignorant morons who would all have long since been eaten by walkers if they weren't wearing plot armor. On the other hand, I'll forgive wooden acting, laughable SFX, and cheap sets...if the writing is tight, and the characters are smart. I like Brisco County, Jr. I'm a big fan of Bruce Campbell. But I thought the main bad guy (whose name I can't even recall now) was horribly miscast and/or a horrible actor. I thought several of his minions were FAR more entertaining to watch. "You touched Pete's piece! Nobody touches Pete's piece!"

Yeah, and The X-Files (Chris Carter, not Abrams). I was a big fan of that show---until I realized there was no master plot of The Conspiracy (tm) above Chris Carter's desk, that he was just making **** up as he went. I continued watching the show, but only really cared about the "Monster of the Week" episodes that had nothing to do with the overarching "plot".

I don't hate JJ Abrams. I don't allot him that much brain space. But I have no use for him. I watched the first season of LOST, but gave up after that because it became clear me at that point that there was no "there" there. That he was happy to create an endless series of mysteries, but there was no answer forthcoming--well, other than an ass-pull at the eleventh hour, if that. Life is too short for that kind of crap.

I like Classic, but while I still have a bunch of classic Traveller books and a bunch of supplements and JTAS supplements, I only have my original Book 3. The first two basic books have gotten lost in the last 40 years and umpteen moves. Funny how that happens. I *have* the Hero Traveller books, but they don't appeal to me. I'd run GURPS Traveller if my gaming crew were up for it, but they don't like GURPS. Plus, with either one I'd end up doing a lot building/conversions of weapons and equipment. So I'm going to go with Mongoose 2nd Edition Traveller. I have the Core Rules, Companion, High Guard, and Central Supply Catalog. That's pretty much everything I need all in one ruleset. Plus, if I'm gonna play a game from my personal Golden Age of Gaming, I want to use essentially the same game. So there I am.

Nope. Not gonna happen. I considered that. I considered running GURPS Traveller. In both cases, it's too much work for too little return. When/if I run my Traveller game, it's gonna be straight-up Traveller (Mongoose 2nd Edition flavor). If my Champions group don't want to try it, I'll find another group somewhere for it. (Maybe online, at this point....)

Nope. No subscriptions. It's nothing but a money grab. If I buy Software 1.0, and it serves my purposes, I don't need or want anything more. IF and when I find it lacking, I can *choose* to pay for an upgrade (Software 1.1 now with flavor!) or a whole new iteration (Software 2.0). But I'm NOT going to pay a monthly or annual subscription just to maintain access to a product I bought.

Except that it's not. I agree with Duke Bushido on this. Transform *actually* turns you into [whatever]. Multi-form *actually* turns you into [whatever]. Shapeshift only presents the ILLUSION that you have turned into someone or something else. And illusion that, unless you buy every sense group in existence, will always be seen thru eventually. Next time I want to play a shapeshifter, I'm going to use Transform vs Self.