The Professional Gamer - May 2, 2016

Hello readers!  I’ve managed to have a week with a more normal work load, and therefore had some more time to enjoy myself.  To start with, I’ve spent a few more hours in Elite: Dangerous and manage to get myself to within about 2 million credits of my new ship goal.  I only need about another hour to get myself to my goal, and start the process of searching the galaxy for my new ship and all the equipment that I want for it.  Then, I’ll be off to make a living as a bulk trader: stocking up on goods in one station and hoping that I can make a profit on them by carrying them to another system.  I may keep my existing ship so that I have an option to go back to if I find that I’m not enjoying life as a merchant.

In other space news, we had the first session of our Traveler game this past weekend.  Everything seemed to go fairly well.  Most of the session was dedicated to role-playing the characters and introducing the world, with only a few skill checks to see how things went.  Next session should get us much more involved in the rules system, and therefore have a much greater chance to bog us down with making sure that we’ve learned how to play the darn thing.  I’m expecting the players to spend some time negotiating commodities prices, searching for delivery jobs, and booking passengers on their vessel before heading off to one of the neighboring systems.  Who knows, we might have a space combat.  But that will depend on the random encounters table.

And finally, I’ve discovered a rather bizarre little anime to watch.  The show is called Dagashi Kashi, and the plot is a bit hard to explain.  To start, “dagashi” are inexpensive Japanese snacks, sort of like penny candies, both in terms of size and price, as well as a degree of sentimentality attached to them.  The show centers around Kokonotsu, a middle school boy who dreams of becoming a manga artist.  His father, Yo, owns a dagashi shop in a small town, and wants Kokonotsu to take over for him.  Hotaru, daughter of a snack manufacturer, comes to the town to recruit Yo.  Yo says that he can’t leave unless Kokonotsu agrees to take over the shop.  Hotaru agrees to convince Kokonotsu to take over the shop in exchange for Yo coming to work for her father’s company.  Hotaru is passionate about the snacks, and spends most of the show trying to kindle Kokonotsu’s passion for dagashi.  In spite of this somewhat odd and convoluted plot, much of the show is basically a love letter to the dagashi themselves.  So, if you are interested in the niche world of Japanese snack foods, it’s a fun watch.

That’s all for this round.  Have a great week and game on!