tabletop.events is in trouble, and hosting a virtual con to try to stay afloat: https://tabletop.events/conventions/con-of-champions

3 1/2 years ago; I jumped back into RPGs, after a long hiatus.  I've since filled up a large bookshelf, and I have accumulated enough miniatures and figures to play "D&D" for the rest of my life.

I'd like to see all of this stuff remain available for generations to come.

Quote from: Brad;1125785Why are you so mad?

The program LITERALLY was ready to go yesterday, which means no one will get any money until probably the end of the week. I think you might actually be mentally ill if you think a bank loan is some sort of instantaneous thing rather than a process that takes a few days.

End of the Week? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

You have no idea, do you. You have no idea what's going on with that.

It was NOT NOT NOT ready to go yesterday. ONE MAJOR BANK IN THE ENTIRE NATION even managed to accept applications. None of the others got their shit together. Wells Fargo accepted two days of "fill this out if you are interested in reserving a spot to eventually fill out a form some day to apply" and then they shut THAT down too.  

The entire program imploded. The SBA had no idea how bad it would be.

There is no hope of 95% of the loans happening any time even vaguely soon. They're talking MONTHS. Not a week. LITERALLY MONTHS.  Which, of course, makes the program pretty useless as it was supposed to be providing payroll during the quarantine, not after it!

Why am I so mad? Because guys like you hear on the news there is a payroll protection program and then the businesses actually trying to apply to it can't even apply to it but the message is out there that there is a payroll protection plan so why worry right?

I am lucky I switched my company to make masks so we have some small amount of revenue still coming in. Businesses that cannot do that will be dead long before they get any payroll coverage.

Quote from: Mistwell;1125936End of the Week? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

You have no idea, do you. You have no idea what's going on with that.

It was NOT NOT NOT ready to go yesterday. ONE MAJOR BANK IN THE ENTIRE NATION even managed to accept applications. None of the others got their shit together. Wells Fargo accepted two days of "fill this out if you are interested in reserving a spot to eventually fill out a form some day to apply" and then they shut THAT down too.  

The entire program imploded. The SBA had no idea how bad it would be.

There is no hope of 95% of the loans happening any time even vaguely soon. They're talking MONTHS. Not a week. LITERALLY MONTHS.  Which, of course, makes the program pretty useless as it was supposed to be providing payroll during the quarantine, not after it!

Why am I so mad? Because guys like you hear on the news there is a payroll protection program and then the businesses actually trying to apply to it can't even apply to it but the message is out there that there is a payroll protection plan so why worry right?

I am lucky I switched my company to make masks so we have some small amount of revenue still coming in. Businesses that cannot do that will be dead long before they get any payroll coverage.

Literally fake news. The owner of the company I work for applied and is getting the money April 20th at the latest.

Location: Los Angeles, CA

That explains everything...

So how stable is the market? Well therpgsite.com is asking for money to stay afloat during a pandemic.

Quote from: Brad;1125526Since the SBA loans will pretty much keep a business afloat for a couple months, if this crap ends soon any viable retailers will be fine.

And how exactly do you expect to pay off those loans when you're not generating revenue?

Quote from: Melan;1125530Even in an economic downturn - which I expect to be deep but relatively short this time, a classic V-shaped crisis - there is a need for entertainment. People are not automatons; they need their comforts and distractions when times are hard. More than ever, they will want to be happy, and live their lives to the fullest.

Doesn't matter if they can't afford it.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1125586I'm guessing the conservatives in the US won't admit it was a problem until 600,000 or more are dead. Since that is 10x some annual flu death estimates or roughly 200 9/11s worth of casualties.
 
Of course it still won't be something Trump had any control over. Only Democrats are responsible for mismanaging disasters /s

Stop making this political. Nobody is admitting there's a problem until the bodies are right in front of them, and I'm watching New York's Own Cuomo mismanage this disaster. The state is even confiscating medical supplies destined for other states!

Quote from: Spinachcat;1125588How can you still be falling for the laughable bullshit?

Kung Flu is the biggest scam in human history. It's a nasty bug (especially vs. those with weakened immune systems), but the media induced panic is the real disease. We've shut down the world for the sniffles. We are forced to cower in our homes because the TV scared everybody into submission.

Unless you're proposing there's a one world shadow government, then nobody has the power to shut down the entire world's economy or plan a scam on such a scale. America saw how other countries were reacting to the disaster, and they did nothing.

Quote from: Anselyn;1125610That's why you need lockdowns.

    80.9% of infections are mild (with flu-like symptoms) and can recover at home.
    13.8% are severe, developing severe diseases including pneumonia and shortness of breath.
    4.7% as critical and can include: respiratory failure, septic shock, and multi-organ failure.
    in about 2% of reported cases the virus is fatal.
    Risk of death increases the older you are.
    Relatively few cases are seen among children.

I suspect a connection between immune system mutations and the number who need to be hospitalized. Cytokine Storms are not new, and there's a significant body of research behind them.

Quote from: Lynn;1125624Unfortunately, 'genius syndrome' persists - that is, people thinking because they are creators in a vertical market that they can easily know and master the business framework around it. I deal with that in the tech market and sadly saw some wonderful tech products crash and burn because the creator thought he understood business better.

Important Lesson: Just because you create something doesn't mean you're the expert on it.

Quote from: S'mon;1125628It looks now like ventilators only postpone C-19 death, rarely prevent it and enable recovery - https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/Ventilators-aren-t-a-panacea-for-a-pandemic-like-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR1uke7bBEUeXNW1J110ds0W_pLYTReAD1bQDUW8nOAF6oO8fbvKku_4_X0

If you need a vent you're as good as dead.

Quote from: Reckall;1125648There is an interesting article in "The Guardian". Some experts from various fields answer the question "How the World Will Change?" Here is the part about retail:

When the world comes out of this, more and more people will be converted to the new economy, how everything can be bought online, and how we won't need the high street. If you are in retail today, you are done for.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/04/coronavirus-business-finance-work-property

If the internet doesn't crash, then Crypto Currencies will finally be a viable option.

Quote from: Brad;1125946Location: Los Angeles, CA

That explains everything...

Yes, let's dismiss statements of fact based on where people are located.

Speaking of which, I'm in Nassau county NY, on Long Island, just outside the frontlines of the current hotzone, and have correctly predicted everything regarding this pandemic so far. If shit gets bad I will literally be isolated from the rest of America. NYC is currently using Central Park as a mass grave. Crime is skyrocketing. The entire government has been shut down, and I can't even get a death certificate for my father, which I need to acquire the funds necessary to survive. EMTs are on order to not take cardiac arrest patients to the hospital unless they can be resuscitated on site.

Guess that makes me a fucking expert.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;1126088And how exactly do you expect to pay off those loans when you're not generating revenue?

Oh hey, look, someone else who literally has no idea what's going on.

QuoteYes, let's dismiss statements of fact based on where people are located.

I generally dismiss people from LA and NYC because 95% of the time they're assholes.

QuoteSpeaking of which, I'm in Nassau county NY, on Long Island, just outside the frontlines of the current hotzone, and have correctly predicted everything regarding this pandemic so far. If shit gets bad I will literally be isolated from the rest of America. NYC is currently using Central Park as a mass grave. Crime is skyrocketing. The entire government has been shut down, and I can't even get a death certificate for my father, which I need to acquire the funds necessary to survive. EMTs are on order to not take cardiac arrest patients to the hospital unless they can be resuscitated on site.

Guess that makes me a fucking expert.

So you live in a literal cesspool and are wondering why things are getting worse. Don't blame me.

Quote from: Pat;1125733Did you read the recent peer-reviewed paper in the link you quoted?

Because there were major outbreaks at a British army encampment in France in 1916 and 1917, followed quickly by some cases in southern England, all of which have been which have tentatively assigned to the pandemic. The same is true with a whole series of outbreaks in northern China in 1917 and 1918. Even in America, there is evidence of the disease spreading in New York City in early 1918, well before the the Kansas outbreak. And even the Kansas outbreak came in two phases, with the first documented outbreak among the rural population. The outbreak at the US Army Camp that received all the attention was months later, and hundreds of miles away. It's just an accident of circumstance that it's been pointed to as the origin point. Not only that, but the Kansas outbreaks had different symptoms and morbidity patterns than the pandemic virus -- they might not have been the same disease.

So naming the pandemic after the Americans, British, French, or Chinese would only be slightly less silly than "Spanish", because ultimately nobody knows where it came from.

Yes, I read it. Yes there is clearly a lot of uncertainty about how the Spanish flu became what it did. And given the passage of time, there will probably always be uncertainty.

It does seem that there were bad flu seasons in the preceding five years or so especially in Europe (and, notably, in America) but it is not at all clear that they were the same virus. This paper treats that theory with some scepticism. Can't say they werent, but the connection is tenuous. Even more tenuous is the Chinese origin theory, which this paper treats very, very sceptically.

The one piece of non-historical, modern, genetic, data on the origins indicate that the "Spanish" flu originated as a North American avian virus. This has not (presently) been falsified. When it comes to the blame game, whether that origin, and the first major outbreak,  is to be found in New York or Kansas, in a rural area or on a military base, is a bit of a red herring. The earliest major outbreak(s) clearly assigned to the Spanish flu were in America. So yeah, I stand pat. If (if) you are going to name a pandemic after the first major outbreak, then S'mon is right, the "Spanish" flu would more plausibly be called the "American" flu.

EDITED TO ADD: anyhoo, getting back to the op and rpgs, I think it is hard to predict just what the repercussions may be when it comes to the the rpg "industry." I do think the process of globalization will take a hit, and that will affect Rpg production. I also suspect existing trends toward more digital and less physical product may be exacerbated (which might paradoxically increase globalization!). In my case, I'm cool with that. For a while, my wife and I have been really cutting back on physical books. We just have so many books already, we have adopted a book in, book out policy and even that is just holding the line. Maybe it's a time of life thing, but really we want to downsize the old library substantially. Digital books that don't affect the shelf-space are just more attractive to us now, and that was true even before the whole covid hoo-hah.

Quote from: Anon Adderlan;1126088So how stable is the market? Well therpgsite.com is asking for money to stay afloat during a pandemic.

And it got it in a matter of mere days.

Our clients who had active SBA loans got their support extensions. The Flu Manchu has proven interesting for online marketing. We have two restaurant clients who are making record sales during CoronaChan. Funnily enough, I heard about a Chicago pizza joint giving away a toilet paper roll which each delivery which was a huge hit. Jeff Bezos of Amazon has made $24B during the ShamDemic (not Amazon, just Jeff) and I've read several author blogs who claim they've seen an uptick in Kindle and audiobook sales.

Anybody know how RPG sales on Amazon have been?

Palladium has been doing several "viral sales" and according to Kevin's newsletter, they've been successful in clearing out inventory which is now out of stock. Anybody hear about sales from other RPG publishers?

Also, I haven't been on Kickstarter in a couple months. How are the RPG and boardgame Kickstarters doing? I had wondered if this was a Good or Bad time for a launch.

Quote from: S'mon;1125535At the very least you can do it with 2D colour printed standups - even with an inkjet you can do hundreds of 30mm figs for a few £, say 6p for a nice plastic base and 6p or so for the ink. There are some great looking 2D standups coming out currently, possibly a sign of things to come!

Of course nearly all RPGs are fine as theatre of the mind anyway.

Edit: Here's a paper minis Kickstarter I was thinking of - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tabletop-tokens/gtg-minis-for-tabletop-rpgs?ref=9n5wrf - personally I have thousands of minis, but I still find I like being able to print stuff for eg obscure monsters I don't want to spend £25 on for a 3D mini. Those are die-cut printed so still expensive, but Printable Heroes has a bunch of cool free stuff, eg https://printableheroes.com/minis/396 or https://printableheroes.com/minis/78

Hell you can make some bang up 6mm to 10mm miniatures with knitting mesh and some elbow grease.

Quote from: Arkansan;1127303knitting mesh

Huh? How does that work?

Quote from: Spinachcat;1127273Our clients who had active SBA loans got their support extensions. The Flu Manchu has proven interesting for online marketing. We have two restaurant clients who are making record sales during CoronaChan. Funnily enough, I heard about a Chicago pizza joint giving away a toilet paper roll which each delivery which was a huge hit. Jeff Bezos of Amazon has made $24B during the ShamDemic (not Amazon, just Jeff) and I've read several author blogs who claim they've seen an uptick in Kindle and audiobook sales.

Anybody know how RPG sales on Amazon have been?

Palladium has been doing several "viral sales" and according to Kevin's newsletter, they've been successful in clearing out inventory which is now out of stock. Anybody hear about sales from other RPG publishers?

Also, I haven't been on Kickstarter in a couple months. How are the RPG and boardgame Kickstarters doing? I had wondered if this was a Good or Bad time for a launch.

I ordered some takeout Mex a while back and it came with a free roll of toilet paper. Gimmicky, but you should have seen how packed the parking lot was.

No idea about Amazon, but I bought $40 worth of RPGs the past two weeks.

Also backed two Kickstarters that both took place in the middle of this mess (Castle Keepers Guide, Monsters Monsters) and they were funded at 312% and 476% respectively.

So I'll stand by what I said before: this is a bullshit psyops campaign, and if the protests around the US are any indication, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Quote from: Zirunel;1127304Huh? How does that work?

This thread has some excellent examples of late Roman infantry done in this fashion.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=116838.0

Quote from: Arkansan;1127321This thread has some excellent examples of late Roman infantry done in this fashion.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=116838.0

Well fancy that!

Amazon will come out of this fine.  The lasting economic wounds I dont see healing fast at all.  In another month Snake Plissken escape tours may become a real thing for NYC.  I feel politically the country has some seams showing.  I forsee problems, the sort nations do not come back from.  I think rpgs have a better shot of being fine as a thing than the USA.