Sorry about the lack of blog post last week. I was at the SIL International offices in Dallas for my new position orientation. We had a great time, but it was very busy so no time for blogging. With starting the new job and busy daughters starting their post graduation lives, I decided to once again post my #RPGaDAY2021 responses all at once here on the blog. Another year of stream of conscious responses through this amazing list of random prompts. Sorry if the randomness throws you off. Just relax and enjoy random musings about my RPG hobby.
With Gen Con 2021 approaching, I think back to Gen Con 2020 and I am still so impressed that a Call of Cthuhlu SCENARIO, Refractions of Glasston, written by my first class of Tabletop Game Writing Lab at Taylor University won an ENnie award. Those students worked so hard and produced an amazing product in such a short period of time.
I love MAPs and used to pour over them as a kid. I had a boxes of maps includeing nearby state highway maps, trail maps from state parks I visited, and maps from National Geographic Magazine. Maps are one of the things that attracted me to ttrpgs. I love pouring over the campaign maps, perusing maps in scenarios, and drawing my own dungeon maps.
As much as I enjoy TACTICs during rpg combat, I actually prefer my ttrpgs to be more story and character focused. I encourage my players to be dramatic and use descriptive combat over purely tactical choices.
My favorite fantasy/medieval WEAPON is the battle axe. I have played many a dwarf that has wielded a fine axe. I even have a Forged Foam battle axe on the wall of my Spare Oom.
In all my years of playing and running ttrpgs, I have never had a storyline focused on obtaining the THRONE of a kingdom. I have had many where the players are working for the king or queen, but none specifically where a player could earn the leadership of a kingdom. Hmm, something to ponder someday.
The more I get into cooking and canning in the real world, the more I have pondered the FLAVOR of some of the food and drink in various ttrpgs I have played. I have even become more descriptive about them when I am telling stories.
I have always enjoyed the SMALL folk of faerie tales, myths, and legends. You will often find brownies, pixies, leprechauns, will o’wisp, and more in my fantasy adventures.
I have never felt comfortable running or playing in a live ttrpg as an online STREAM. I have been in a few recorded one shot ttrpgs that were then uploaded as highlights only.
My favorite MEDIUM for ttrpgs is still printed books. I have quite a few PDFs that I use for reference and some online subscriptions, but I prefer a stack of books beside me when I game.
As much as gaming is social and creative, it is also about TRUST. There is a relationship between storyteller/GM and the players that is very unique among hobbies. We are trusting each other with our creative sides, which can be very transparent about our lives as well.
The cover of the 1e AD&D WILDERNESS Survival Guide is one of my all time favorites in ttrpg books. I always loved how that book depicted the challenges of adventure, the risks involved, the creatures you might encounter, the treasures you can find, and that it has a dwarf which was always my favorite fantasy culture.
One of the draws to ttrpgs for me is they were THINKing games as well as creative. I love the mental challenge or ttrpgs and board games.
I have such a memory of water FLOODing over my friend when we had a magic duel when playing Legend of the Five Rings 1e. I can’t remember the spell, but it summoned this huge wave of water which overwhelmed the fire mage I was dueling.
I really like the new ttrpg SAFETY cards that you can find in various formats. They are really helpful for one shots when gaming with new players.
I have so many ttrpg SUPPLEMENTs on my shelves, many for games I have never run. But I love just reading them for inspiration for other games or just for fun.
Feng Shui 2 has the best MOVEs of any ttrpg, in my opinion. Crazy, over-the-top, fun!
“You don’t find any TRAPs.” The words feared by all thieves.
I am hoping to WRITE more in the coming years, both fiction and game writing.
THEME matters more than game system to me, and normally I can play any game system as long as the adventures are fun and I enjoy the players. But, there are times the game system breaks you out of the theme, and that destroys the game. Best theme to game systems to me are Dread, with the Jenga blocks, and Feng Shui 2, with its simplistic and fast 1d6-1d6 rules.
The FOUNDATION of all my gaming is socializing. I care most about being with friends and sharing creative moments.
The older I get and the less time I have, the more SIMPLICITY I seek in my ttrpgs.
I find the best SUBSTITUTE when I cannot play ttrpgs is to play board games. When that is not an option, then I will play video games.
One of the reasons I love ttrpgs is that at random moments, a MEMORY comes to mind. I will be sitting with friends, and suddenly one of them will bring up a memory from a recent or way back game session, and then we all laugh, or cry, or feel the memory again. Those shared memories are what make ttrpgs so special.
I wish more ttrpgs would be TRANSLATEd. So many great ttrpgs around the world that we do not get to experience because of language barriers. Great to see D&D 5e getting translated into other languages, and to see some great non-English ttrpgs being translated to English as well.
I so enjoy being the one to WELCOME new players into the ttrpg hobby. Running a game for a new players is an experience all GMs should have.
I love discussing the history and THEORY of ttrpgs in my game studies courses that I teach.
I spend a FRACTION of the time I wish I did playing ttrpgs. Don’t we all?
When I first found first edition AD&D, I used to use the random dungeon generator and random encounter generator to play SOLO adventures when I couldn’t get together with my gaming group.
The SYSTEM I have played the most is variations on D20 (AD&D, D&D, Pathfinder, and the offshoots like Hackmaster, Stars Without Number, Mutants & Masterminds, AiME, Wheel of Time, and others).
I can’t end this without a MENTION of how amazing #RPGaDAY is each year. I love reading the responses of others to see how ttrpgs have impacted them.
THANKS to all my players and game masters over the decades.