Conflicted Card Game - Review

While scrolling along on the internet I came across this card game, Conflicted. Always looking for items which can be useful I went ahead and ordered the first deck of cards. Using Amazon the cards came a few days later.

Below is the 'about' section from their website

"Conflicted: The Survival Card Game was born from friends debating why the world is the way it is. Discover where you will draw the line between your morals and your humanity.

Know Your Self
Conflicted was designed to help you think about life in a post apocalyptic world. After playing it, you'll be more aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and areas needing improvement. How far are you willing to go in order to survive, when the choice is life versus your own morals?

Know  Your Friends
When you play Conflicted: The Survival Card Game with your friends and family, their answers will tell you all about their philosophy on prepping and survival. What they say or don't say, their body language - it all matters.  You will probably re-think who you'll bugout with after the first game.

Know  Your Enemies
By playing Conflicted: The Survival Card Game you'll realize that the thin veil of civilized behavior our current modern society portrays is easily torn apart. We all have a breaking point where our will to live speaks louder than our own morals. That breaking point is at a different place for everyone."

I thought this could be interesting and went through each card to see what the questions were like. To be honest the questions, for the most part, are extreme. They set up situations which almost no one will find themselves in, hopefully! Of course the entire idea of the game is these situations take place after an extraordinary incident has happened, a post apocalyptic situation. Which gives them the setting and ability to ask some of these extreme questions. Even in this setting some of the questions are........ just ........ heck I do not know the word, extreme doesn't seem to fit right.

People are asked to make life or death decisions.  On first read it appears they could simply give an answer, with no reference point to make the decision in their life to draw from. A lot of the questions ask about helping others but helping others would cause your family to starve. It is easy to say you would turn children away who are starving to allow your family to survive longer when the kids are not in front of you. Especially if you have never seen starving children or been to places where people are going hungry. Other questions ask about killing people for one reason or another. Again it is easy to say you would kill someone who is a threat to your family or group. Especially if you have never hurt someone else or had to use deadly force against another person. Some of the questions seem to give you only one way to answer the question but leave out other options. Here is an example;

"The airplane you stole lost 30% of it's power in mid air and is about to crash" The question goes on to say you have dumped everything you can to lighten the load and are now faced with two of your six person group having to "...... leave the plane... suffer an excruciating fall to their deaths." Did I forget to mention there are no parachutes? Your supposed to decide who is sacrificed for the greater good............

Here is an issue with this question, if you have a pilot in the group wouldn't they know how to land the plane? Why would you dump supplies, fuel and other items you stole? Why would you then sacrifice two of your group?

Completely understanding the concept here is to start a conversation with people and to get an idea of how they think. The question would seem to lead people into thinking the only answer was to have two of your group willingly or unwillingly sacrifice themselves. Which seems to guide people into a thought pattern where they are preprogramming themselves to think death is the only answer in a apocalyptic situation. Seems to embed what some folks call "training scars" into people which could lead someone to make what could be interpreted as poor decisions under pressure.

My personal answer is to land the plane as soon as the pilot thinks they can no longer stay airborne. What was the point if you lose all the supplies and people? Of course there could be other variables but given the question as it is written, landing the plane seems to be the one answer you are not lead toward. Once on the ground you could see about repairing the plane or lightening the load by having some of your group walk. Maybe they can take enough supplies with them the flight can be completed and the plane might even be able to come back to get them somewhere along the line?

Some questions are really good ones;

".... What do you think you could offer any community in exchange for food, water and shelter?" They narrow down the answers nicely by saying the community "...already have enough security and caretakers." The best part of this question states "This must be a skill you currently have."

Think about that question for a minute................. What skills do you have which would REALLY be needed after a total collapse? Think of the situation as they have framed it. The world is closer to all out Mad Max than Sex In The City..............

Well these sound like good skills to have at work tomorrow! How would they help if people are struggling to feed themselves?

We all know people who would believe this is the right answer!!!!

What can you do? Most of us have become specialist in our daily lives. You are a lawyer, how is that going to work out if people are reduced to scavenging for food? Maybe you do odd jobs, manual labor kind of stuff, a few times a week, then spend the rest of your time surfing and smoking as much dope as you can? How is that going to translate over?

Let's not even start discussing Human Resource types or folks with jobs like Life Coach...... And if I just made you mad because you are one of these, do not fear there are lots and lots of people out there who have less useful skill sets.

If the community has enough guys dressed like this I personally had to stop and think about my answer to the question. My go to thing is security, weapons, military and stuff like that. If the billet is already filled I would be hard pressed to make myself useful!! Sure I got some skills but not enough to sell myself as an expert farmer, healer or wizard! If the community needs male strippers I might be able to pull that one off!!!!!

What could you function as if the world went south? Be realistic about your answer since you are only answering the question to yourself!

Alright, last question from the deck of cards. This is a good question with multiple answers due to the open ended way the question is asked. This might be the best question in the deck to figure out how someone thinks they will respond.

"You are behind on rent and now that the Electromagnetic Pulse went off and the banks aren't open, your landlord came trying to collect. He said either pay up in cash or in goods, or he will evict your family and put them on the street in three days with the help of armed security. You were not prepared to bug out at all..... in three days he will bring armed men to take you out of the house, but right now he is standing in front of you, alone. How would you handle this situation?"

The parts in the question which just repeat the same situational information were cut out.

Let's start the answer with some thoughts about avoiding the question. Preparing for a bad day does not focus solely on the actions you take after something has happened. You shouldn't only focus on having gear, food and solar panels for after something happens. What you do before an event directly affects how you can respond during and after an event. This is one reason I think this question is one of the better ones in the deck.

If we square away our finances and put some cash away inside a safe in the house we have avoided this question for a moment. A moment which might buy us time to better our position. Having our finances squared away could allow us to buy a house. A house which would allow us to not be living under the rule of a LAND LORD. Taking these actions before an event would help us cover several problems at once and we try to cover as many issues with the least amount of resources. Moving back to the situation laid out by the question.

For these of this discussion let's say we are in the position the question has us in. Your options seem to be 1) find a way to pay the Landlord, 2) leave your home, and 3) do something to the Landlord? Going in reverse order to answer this question.

3) Do you assault or even kill the Landlord? He is threatening to put your family in a position of grave danger? If so how? Do you threaten him back? Can you threaten him? Do you have the ability to put 'the fear of god' into him? Do you have the ability to back up any threats you make? No really do you? If he comes back with armed men do you have the ability to resist? Are you willing to take the chance with your families safety you will be able to deal with him and others later, still keeping your family safe?

Do you assault or kill her now? Right now, when she has no back up? Is the situation so bad you need to end this threat right now to protect your family? Do you have the ability to killer her? Put your ego aside........ no really take an honest look at your life experience and skill set. Someone is at your door right now, can you kill them where they stand? I'll answer the question for you, no. Most people are not prepared for this kind of action. Nothing wrong with this! Most of us are not programed to be able to do this and not being able to easily kill another human is a GOOD THING! While your yelling at me insisting you could do this to protect your family I'll ask another question. You start to take action against the Landlord.... did you check to see if there are any witnesses to report your actions? If you kill the Landlord in the doorway are you going to get away with it? Are others going to come looking for her? Did you think about any of that before you thought of killing the Landlord in the doorway? Remember, life is more complicated than black and white answers.......

2) Leaving, could you? How would you pack up? Are you walking or driving? Where are you going? Can you get there in the situation the question is asked? Let's take the worst case and say you have to walk. Where is the closest place you could go? Are you and the family prepared to walk that far? No really (I keep repeating this on purpose)? Five miles to grandma's house is nothing in the car. Could you and the family make that walk carrying, pulling or pushing everything you could take from the house? What would you take from the house? When was the last time you walked a mile under weight?

1) Coming up with money or goods to pay the Landlord. Do you have money or goods on hand to do this? If you do this are you just delaying the time until your family is starving? Once you pay how too till they come back for more? If you pay are you letting them know or think they know you have enough to pay and have more inside? Do you have another way to pay? Are you skilled at negotiating or sweet talking your way out of things?

If you go into a situation with nothing you have greatly limited your options......

Take a moment and seriously consider your options in this situation. The situation does not have to be after an EMP, this can occur if someone loses their job tomorrow! Remember we are not just planning for the end of the world we are planning for everyday emergencies also!

At the end of the day I find myself really neutral about the deck of cards. I understand what they were trying to do and commend them for trying it! I feel some of the questions are to extreme. They lead people to much especially if people are new to preparedness. Will I be spending any more resources or time on this deck of cards, no.

I realize they have made other decks of cards with other questions. Maybe someone has read other decks? I would love to hear about what you thought about the other decks. As for me I can go without investing any more in these.

https://www.conflictedthegame.com


As always,

Stay Safe!!

New Year 2017!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I hope everyone has had a real good start to the new year! 

I personally was sick as a dog over the last few months. Seems getting old and catching a cold does not mix!! 

Opening this up today, to get back at it, I realized I have been doing this for a couple of years now, WOW! Never thought I would be writing this much. Really just started this to help put out information people were asking me about and it seems to have grown from there. 

The great part for me is I have had to research more, learn more and figure out how to pass on information I have in my head but does not come out right some times. I guess everyone does not speak Caveman!!

Hopefully this blog has helped you think about and take some action to plan ahead for your family. There are thousands of people writing, creating websites and posting Youtube videos about survival if the zombies attack or you find yourself naked in the jungles of the Antarctic. (let's see who figures that one out) I am not trying to compete with those folks.

Over the life of this blog we have talked about lots of things which have to do with situations most of us will face at one point in our lives.

Forest Fires

Tornados

Floods

Sever storms

Ok maybe the last picture does not look like a big deal to you. I live in Southern California! I rather deal with zombies ripping at my front door than all of that snow!!!!

Here on this blog the idea is to think about these situations a little different than what others put out there. Planning for just one situation is not a good use of resources, resources most of us are limited on. The more things you can prepare for the better off the family and you will be. All of us should strive to do more with less, money can not solve all problems, principles and concepts are more important than people realize.

With this in mind, hopefully you have read a few of the post on here (read them all! hehehe) and have taken a few steps to improve your position if something happens. Over the last two years or so we have talked about all of the foundational items and concepts someone needs to cover a wide section of emergency situations.

Word's to remember as we move into the new year and new situations across the globe. Between mother nature and man made issues odds are some of us reading this are going to have to deal with something over the next year.

Over the next year the focus is going to move slightly away from the foundational thoughts on emergency preparedness. We are going to try and move toward the next level of preparedness. No, this does not mean we are going to all go dig bomb shelters in the back yard or buy property way out in the woods to run to! If you have made enough headway to have some extra food in the house and extra money in the bank we are going to talk about how to increase the food in the cupboards and money in the bank.

None of this is easy, all of this takes time and energy when you are starting out. Over time having a plan and abilities to deal with situations takes less and less time or energy because you have covered your bases.

 Soon some of these new ways of doing things become second nature and you do not have to think about it. Which gives you more time to contemplate things like "How does the lint get in my belly button?"

We will be going down the rabbit hole more but I promise it is not as scary as it might seem. No one will be required to wear a tin foil hat or swear allegiance to the multi-armed, alein living in the clouds. It will be a good idea to read some of the post already on here or maybe refer back to them when the subject comes up again. We won't be spending a lot of time going over stuff in the same way we already have.  

 Maybe by the end of this year the picture above would not really bother you if you woke up and this was your new reality? (yeah right! I am thinking of all the things which I have not covered right now!)

If you enjoy this blog share it! If you have time drop me a note to let me know you enjoy it or have an idea for a post. Some times I send these things out into the internet and have no idea if anyone is reading them!!

As always,

Stay Safe!

WISE COMPANY 5-Day Survival Backpack review

Let me start off by stating any equipment or supplies are better than none. I rather be in a bad situation and have this backpack than find myself standing there empty handed. (Yes this is my "say something nice" statement before I write things some people might not like.)

As I started to really educate myself on the realities of emergency preparedness a few things stood out to me. One of which was the prepackage emergency bags or backpacks. What could be better than a bag all ready to go? All you would have to do is grab the bag and go! Man, that would be great!

I came across a sale on this item and decided to purchase one. The idea was to see what the bag could do by touching, feeling and using what the bag came with. Ordering the bag was simple and it came exactly when they said it would. Just for the record this cost me less than a hundred dollars, I think! I can't find the receipt right now, DUH!

First thing I noticed was the bag claims to hold food, water, first aid and warmth for five days if you read what is written the way most people read things.

Looking at the placard attached on the backpack one would think you are ready to deal with tornados, hurricanes, wildfires and floods just by having this bag! What could be better? Even the smaller print makes it seem as if this is what I need to be ready in the event of an emergency. This bag comes with 32 servings of gourmet entrees! Water, a stove, not any cup but a stainless steel cup, flashlight, survival whistle thing, matches, blanket, emergency poncho and even a set of playing cards! If they can put a set of playing cards in the bag the bag must be really loaded for a bad day! The 42 piece first aid and hygiene kit will come in handy if you have to survive out of this bag!

This morning I opened up the box the bag came in and was kind of like a kid at christmas! I couldn't wait to see what I could learn from this bag. They managed to get five days worth of supplies for one person into a rather small bag and I wanted to learn how. 

The bag is about the size you would buy for an elementary school child. There are pockets and straps all over the bag which gives you options for packing gear. The material is a really thin type, the straps  are not padded and do not seem to be made for any long periods of use. Inside the bag I found three bundles of supplies. As you can see one was filled with water packets, one with food stuff and the third had equipment.

Let's start with the water supply provided. You see these packets being sold as emergency supplies. One might think from the presentation of the bag five pouches of water would equal enough water for five days. After all the bag is labeled as a "5-DAY SURVIVAL BACKPACK".

The amount of water in each is 4.227 fl oz. or 125ml. "Well how much water is that? Must be enough if they are saying this bag will last you five days?" Let me see if I can put this in prospective for you. I emptied one of these packets into a regular sized glass from the kitchen, looking forward to a nice glass of water while I went through the rest of the bag.

Obviously I was disappointed at what the pouch held. Good thing I was not really thirsty, you know like after surviving a tornado or running for my life from a forest fire. This is some hard core rationing for even the hardest ones of us out there if this is all the water you get for one day! How about a few more visuals to help you.





















That is all the water included in one of these pouches, half a drink glass or martini glass. No the pouch is not filled with liquor for either of these! Which might be a good selling point or marketing scheme to another company. "We got booze for your emergency kit!"

There is no way you are going to be doing much physical activity if these are supposed to be consumed one a day, for five days. Of course the bag also comes with water purification tablets. Issue is the bag does not come with anything I can use to hold the water in I want to treat? This was really the first WTF moment I had with this bag. If you are going to say this bag is a 'grab and run' or a bag you can use to survive for five days you might want to include items needed to utilize the supplies you put in the bag. Otherwise what is the point of putting items into the bag I can not use? Would suck to be standing next to a stream with no way of filtering water. And no the stainless steel cup does not allow you to follow the directions provided for the water purification tablets...........

The water purification tablets and other supplies were contained in a separate plastic bag from the water. Five tablets and their directions are located in the lower left section of the photo. The directions state to transfer the water from one container to another. Containers not provided in the bag... The plastic bag also contained a medical kit, matches and other items.

I am not sure what was supposed to be hygiene items in this bag or advertised '42 piece first aid and hygiene kit'. There are some tissues provided, the kind and size to blow your nose and I really hope they do not expect you to use those on your rear. But you should have enough q-tips to keep your ears clean for five days. Unless you get a small scrap or cut this first aid kit is almost useless.

Let's focus on the food stuff provided in the bag. Water and food would probable be the two top items of concern if you were suddenly stranded on a roof top or stuck up a tree during a flood. You know a flood like the one pictured on the placard. Water all the way to the roof tops of homes.

Six pouches of food items is provided. I am not sure but the items seemed to have just been randomly thrown into the plastic bag and tied off. Not sure why I think this just my impression of how the package was packed. Pasta, beans & rice, tortilla soup, two types of cereal and whey milk....... These are supposed to last five days.......

Here are the directions printed on the food pouch. Yeah, about that 3.5 cups of water, where do I get that? This is an emergency bag, bag implies the situation is bad enough I have had to leave or other wise can not use the comforts of my home. Isn't electricity one of the first things to go out? Followed by gas? I know in California if the Big One hit we can expect an interruption to the electricity and gas supplied to our homes. Guess that would leave you with option three, using an emergency heat source. They did provide me with one in the bag! I'll try that but first;

We have covered this in other post, you need at least 1200 calories to stay alive and over 2000 if you are being active. Total calories in this food pouch 1040? Guess this is what you get to eat for one day. Once you prepare the food plan on eating it right than because there is nothing provided to save your uneaten food with. If you manage to find 4 cups of water I guess you also can find a Tupperware bowl or something else to store your cooked food in.

For some reason milk was included but no other drink choices (should have included alcohol). Of course some how they figure I have procured water which was not provided to make the milk. Milk, really?

Having opened the box right before lunch time I decided to try and prepare a meal from this bag. I quickly found out I would need items not included in my 5-day survival backpack. Water, water in an amount not provided in the bag was the first thing I needed, along with a way to measure the amount of water in order to follow the directions.

Four cups is a lot of water to carry around in a measuring cup........ sarcasm intended. Next I took the items outside to cook up my lunch utilizing the items in the bag.

Took me a minute to figure out how to open the "stove". And just so you know I picked the tortilla soup for lunch, I really like tortilla soup.

Took four of my twenty matches to start one of my four fuel tabs. Wait, I got four fuel tabs in a 5-DAY SURVIVAL BAG? Twenty minus four, minus four, minus four, minus four leaves me four other matches to use for five days? Well maybe it does not take four matches each time to light the fuel cubes?

Found out my stainless steel cup does not fit on my portable stove....... Which means I had to find another way to heat up my 4 cups of water.......

I had to find an old pan in the cupboard. Did not want to get in trouble for using one of the new ones. I guess if a disaster struck and I had to utilize this bag finding a pan would not be a big deal. Especially since I already found a measuring cup, along with extra water.

The water never reach boiling as the direction wanted.

The fuel cube ran out of flame before the water boiled. I decided to just keep trying to make lunch and not use another of the three remaining fuel cubes.

Well the next thing I found out I needed was a spoon and a lid to follow the directions on the package. Really, not a single piece of this kit can help me eat the food I am trying to make? I guess if already found water, measuring cup, pan, a lid for the pan, there should not be any issue finding eating utensils.

Following the directions I ended up with this. A pan filled with flavored water sitting on top of uncooked rice. If there is any tortillas in here, you know to make it tortilla soup, I could not find them.

Well not wanting to waste food I took the "soup" inside the house. You know the house which I might have to leave carrying this 5-day survival backpack. I utilized the gas stove, which is lite via electricity and this bag of tortilla chips to try and salvage the meal. After ten minutes on the stove and the addition of the tortillas to the tortilla soup I had a decent lunch!

In all fairness I will report the soup was decent, even had extra I might take to work with me.

After the attempt at lunch I did not even try to test out anything else from the bag. I figured the quality of the the other items and thought put into the planning of this bag was determined already.

Why am I being rather negative in this review? Because I hope everyone reading this will understand a few things from this.

One, you are responsible for you! People will package and sell anything someone else will buy but at the end of the day they will not be relying on the items to survive.

Two, there are no prepackaged one size fits all answers. If there was a company selling bags which could do this I would be adding a link and filling my garage with them!

Three, you get what you pay for. As I stated this bag did not cost me much (still can't find the receipt) but is almost a complete waste of resources. I literally could walk around the house, with maybe a trip to the dollar store and make a more useful bag than this one.

(trying to end on an upbeat note)

If you have nothing else this bag is a starting point from which you can build a far better 5-day survival backpack............

As Always,

Stay Safe!

Corsair Trainers

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We have all probably heard this at one time or another. When planning for emergencies this is a good saying to remember. Planning will not be done in a day. I was just personally reminded of this earlier in the week.

Out here in California we had a recent warning put out about an increased risk of a major earthquake. Of course earthquakes are kind of normal out here but to have authorities put out a warning is very far from normal. In response to the warning the ‘Boss’ asked me about her Get Home Back while telling me the warning concerned her. With the mission given I went and started to go through her bag. Here is where the saying comes into play.  

Several months or more have gone by since I looked at her bag or mine for that matter. Looking through the bag along with talking to her, I realized the bag was no longer filling the need the bag was originally put together for.  Our situation has changed, such is life, and I have fallen behind on our preparedness! Quickly I found myself reminded there are no one time, fix all answers to emergency preparedness.

Which brings me back to the point of this post.

Little things matter, little things put together make for big things and build a solid plan for responding to emergencies. The extra cup-of-soup you pick up adds to the other items you have bought and increases your food preparedness. Checking the batteries in the flashlight in the drawer means the light will work when you need it. Reviewing, altering and adjusting what you think is already taken care of might allow you to change things as your situation changes. All of these building blocks lead to the building of Rome!

Do not get overwhelmed by your effort to be prepared. Build your plan one brick at a time. Take time to review what you have done to ensure each brick still fits. Adjust as needed. Before you know it you will be living in a fine Roman city!!!

As Always,

Stay Safe!!