Life is so strange right now: it’s a blur of days and nights that sort of blend in together and it’s rare when I actually know exactly what day it is. Somehow, though, we’ve made it halfway through 2020, a year that we can all agree has brought about unprecedented challenges. Unfortunately, the pandemic is still raging through the U.S., and I’ve chosen to be responsible and stay at home and limit contact with other human beings.
At first, as an introvert, this was actually pretty easy. However, as time progressed, I realized that even I, the hermit, really missed connecting with people. I’ve stayed in touch via social media and text messaging, but, alas, that wasn’t necessarily enough. Fortunately, one of my friends invited me to start doing trivia with Takeout Trivia, and that’s actually started to fill in a little of my free time (which I have entirely too much of). I’ve done everything from Harry Potter trivia to Disney trivia and even won a costume contest (with my cat) for Marvel trivia. We connect via Facebook live chat while we play and those sessions usually end long after trivia actually has. I’m reconnecting with my people, thanks to technology. And that, my friends, has been a godsend.
I have continued my costuming charity work, albeit online. I’ve been continuing to dress up for kids and send birthday messages and words of encouragement as much as I can. Just last week, I recorded 15 messages as the Evil Queen, all for some kids’ birthdays. I will continue to do this as I can, because being able to do something for others is important to me, even when I’m staying at home.
I also started playing D&D online with a group: we meet virtually every two weeks. I’ve long been a fan of tabletop games, but it had been a long time since I had last played. However, I fell in love with D&D again. However, I still have a lot of free time, so I sought out ways to play D&D as a solo player. Believe it or not, I stumbled up on some wonderful solo D&D adventures via the Dungeon Master’s Guild. I played through one this past holiday weekend and it was a lot of fun. I’ll also get to play it again because I did not defeat the big baddie and there is still loot to be discovered for my half-elf bard.
This led me to searching for other solo tabletop games, and lo and behold, such things do exist. I discovered Arkham Horror: The Card Game and immediately bought it as a long-time fan of Call of Cthulhu. This one, though, is not for the faint of heart (or the impatient). The game has a steep learning curve, a lot of rules and a lot of details to keep track of. It took me two test playthroughs to understand it, but once I played my first “real” game, I was hooked. I do think replayability might be limited, but the good news is there are many expansion sets and decks one can buy (the bad news is that they’re not exactly cheap).
Keep my time filled has helped me fight off a lot of the boredom that has plagued me. It has also inspired me, at least in some way, to get back to writing. I’ve been working steadily on rewrites for the first book in my Children of Magic series. I finally seemed to have found my writing mojo and I think part of it has to do with staying busy with other things, too. I plan on researching some more solo tabletop games just to see what’s out there, so I’ll report in on any that I find that I like.
In the meantime, stay busy, stay safe, WEAR A MASK and be smart.
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