My Top Ten TTRPGs

Happy 2026. Dusting off the old blog and dropping one that a lot of Dungeon Tubers are doing. In spite of being a Caucasian Male TTRPG player over the age of 50, I have yet to set up a Dungeon Tube of my own, so I'm dropping it here. For my dozen or so I hope you are all doing well. I can't believe I had over a hundred views on the last Astroprisma one. I haven't played it in a while now, but it remains a fun game that I enjoyed and it makes the list.

10. Deadlands (Pinnacle Entertainment Group): This one is weird west setting and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't play it enough for it to go any further up the chain. I remember a few characters I ran--"Stone Cold" Ken Masters who was me doing a piss-poor Steve Austin getting blown away by a rifleman is very memorable and there was a gambler I played at a convention one time when I lived out in the UAE--for me the best mechanic was using the poker cards. I never tried the D20 or Savage Worlds version, so I can't speak to those but the original was fun.

09. Vampire: The Masquerade (White Wolf): For a time there in the 90's, this was the go to. My group played in a lot of the old World of Darkness and the various supplements. Dice pool system, but it felt like an easy one compared to some of the things I've encountered today. I still have the first edition of the core rule book and may revisit it someday. 08. Heroes Unlimited (Palladium): It's a super hero game with the Palladium engine. I also had plenty of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the various supplements. I remember reading the books like crazy and playing a few games in high school and as a recent graduate, but not enough to place it any higher on the list. Nowadays when I want rules light and just can't keep up with what characters can do even in 5th edition, I just don't think Palladium books can make the cut. 07.Marvel Super Heroes (TSR): You know and love FASERIP. This is the main supers game we played at a time in my life when Marvel was doing now wrong. I recently re-acquired them and hope to play again soon. My Mandela Effect affected brain doesn't remember if I started with this or with some half-hearted attempt at D&D, but as I remember it today, this is what started me on the journey. 06. Ryuutama:Natural Fantasy RPG (Kotodama Heavy Industries): For quite some time this was the number one RPG in Japan. It was billed as "Miyazaki meets The Oregon Trail" and that pretty much covers it. Two unique elements to this game: 1. Travel is the focus 2. The GM has his own character--a dragon called a Ryuujin. It grows along along with the players and tries to help them succeed. It's very rules light and a lot of fun. (I put two newer games on my list which may prove to be usurpers as time goes on. I used to proselytize for Ryuutama all the time. It's a really light-hearted fun game worth a shot. I'm sure it would be a great one to solo) 05.Cyberpunk 2020 (R. Talsorian Games) I don't want to separate things by edition too much, but RED--the current edition--could be up here in about the same spot. RED is a little easier to learn as I understand, but I really haven't played or run it, so 2020 it is. A lot of fun to be had here and I have both played and run online. The setting is what makes this game for me. Everyone should watch Edgerunners if they haven't. 04.Astroprisma (Crescent Chimera) another new one which is kind of a sister game to Shadow Dark in my mind. It has a similar creation backstory and creator--another young woman who jumped on the shoulders of giants and surpassed them streamlining some of the tedium of games that came before. It was a successful Kickstarter...it just didn't quite break the bank like Shadow Dark did. This is Sci-Fi space exploration geared for solo play with later expansion for groups to play together. Build a ship, explore a sector and get into trouble with various factions in the dystopian future. 03. The Roleplaying Game of the Planet of the Apes (Magnetic Press/West End): I love the ruleset, the supplements and the setting. This is a new one and I haven't been able to run one for the group. This is a variant of the D6 West End games like Star Wars. It looks so good and I'm working on my campaign/one shot planning now. The little solo part in the book was more like a Choose Your Own Adventure, but a more complex Solo expansion is on the way. 02. Shadow Dark (Arcane Library): I've run this a few times. I haven't quite gotten a continuous campaign out of it, but it's fun to read, has interesting art, and is supported by a growing community. Everyone in the Dungeon Tube audience has to know about it unless they've been living under a rock. 01. D&D 5E (WOTC 2014): Unpopular opinion in these circles, but for better or for worse, I've played it more than anything else. The mechanics are solid and easy enough for anyone to play who has an interest. I prefer Shadow Dark. I honestly had more fun with 4E and I grew up with 2E and played in a cool OSRIC campaign just before Wuhan Flu, but at the end of the day, I've played more 5E with more people in person and online than I've ever played in any of the other games over the previous 40-ish years of playing. It comes down to who is running the game and who you're playing with as far as the cringy/woke bits are concerned and the 2024 update is a bridge too far, but this version has been the most popular for a reason.

Take care...hopefully, I won't make it a complete ghost town in here in 2026..Also, Happy Year of the Horse...CNY is on the way you know!

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 26 Favorite Character Sheet

This year I think Shadowdark has won me over as far as my responses go. It may be flavor of the month ultimately if some new, new hotness--as the kids say--comes along. Today, it is the most refined and streamlined version of D&D 5E that you can get. It's simple and effective. It also allows me to paraphrase the old English teacher's joke about essays--

How long should a "character sheet" be? 

It should be like a lady's skirt, long enough to cover everything, but short enough to keep things interesting. 

For a level 1 character, this is it. Maybe the talents/spells might expand by level 10--I would probably use cards of some kind for spells--but one sheet with everything in front of you is all that is needed. The gear is always going to be limited and there really isn't a 'bag of holding' type thing using Shadowdark RAW. I've really gone into K.I.S.S. mode for now, if a character sheet can be short and sweet like this  one, it should speed up the process of players--and GMs for that matter, when they decide what to do. 

This picture is based on the original Shadowdark character sheet and was generated at

 https://shadowdarklings.net/

At the time of this entry, the only drawback I have is that nobody has put one on Roll*20 yet.  

RPG a Day 2023: The 10th Anniversary Edition--Day 1 First RPG Played This Year

 It's that bittersweet time of year again. My blog will wake from hibernation for this month as I participate in RPG a Day. Going to try to keep my answers short and sweet this year. The bitter part? My vacation will be over before the challenge is...

FIRST RPG Played this year:

In spite of all the controversy going on with the OGL and WotC at the time, my ongoing Roll 20 D&D5E game was the first game I played this year. Things have changed a lot around here since that time. The biggest of the changes is that China lifted all the Covid restrictions. The Wuhan flu feels like a distant memory now. Most of my gaming remains online, but we finally have live tables running as well. Let's hope we never go through a time like that again.  

I have been running my game since November '21. It was supposed to be an adaptation of Palace of the Silver Princess, but I've taken the party all over the place by running modules that I never got to run before to flesh out the cities and towns in Haven that had only sparse descriptions as originally written. Unfortunately, I unwittingly turned my campaign into one of those inter-planar/multiverse things. Ugh! hate those and it's like I'm running one and I'm playing in one at the live table as well. To make things worse, I crossed a bridge too far back in Halloween of '22.I allowed the party to explore a carnival using a KS supplement that I backed called Heckna!. They have been stuck there ever since. I will not tell a lie, the campaign is looking like old Elvis now, and I'm pushing the party hard down that railroad back to Haven. You can take your pick as to what the setting is feeling like to me now: A) Casablanca B) Hotel California C) Roach Motel.

Still, we press on. Luckily, getting there is half the fun right...right?

RPG A Day 2022--Day 27--How Has Your Character Changed?

This will be the shortest one yet. We're still talking about Navi Brightheart, the Green Ryuujin from the TTRPG Ryuutama. Navi has maxed out, so she has a lot more powers, artifacts, life points and spell slots. Note that I have put her into my 5E smash-up campaign and though I haven't had to tweak much of what she can do, some of her powers aren't prudent to the 5E mechanics. The best thing I can say is that when the characters were low-level, she had to help out a lot. Now that the characters are higher level, her powers aren't nearly as impressive as they once were. That's the way it should be as the PCs are the stars. 

RPG A Day 2022--Day 10: When Did/Will You Start Gamemastering?

I'll use this entry to summarize my DM/GMing career as I remember it today. Hopefully, it doesn't contradict the entries from previous years too much...at the same time, I hope I'm not rehashing a previous entry.

If you've been following along with the past several entries, you can put it together that I was the DM/GM right away as I was the only one in my family with any interest in picking up the hobby and I didn't have a close circle of neighborhood kids to hang out with. In my first failed attempt with the D&D product that I can't remember, I would have only been running for my brother. The second attempt with Marvel Superheroes and my Dad's...er, non-conformity...would have been me running for my Mom, my Dad and my brother. The parents humored me with that one and maybe a couple more sessions before it went to just running for my brother and eventually one of his younger friends named Matthew. Even these memories are suddenly 30+ years ago, so I'm forgetting exact details, but I recall running for my brother and his friend from around '89 until about '91 or '92. I graduated high school in 1992 and would eventually hook up with the 'main group' of my youth later that summer. I never ran during those years which lasted for quite some time. I played a lot then and had semi-regular gaming days between TTRPGs, Card Games, and War Games. At some point though...I finally needed to "grow up". I hated it, but I caught on that things change. There is a window of time wherein you are deciding who you want to be. It's cute buying toys and playing games all the time in your late teens and early 20's...it's something different to still be doing it when you are approaching 30, still living at home, have no girlfriend and no prospects. 

I pulled away from my gaming friends and decided to acquire a girlfriend/spouse. I spent two years in the search and courtship and finally won my wife over. We had to be one of the first online romances out there as I used my Sega Dreamcast and Library computers to correspond with her. I couldn't even get a hold of a scanner to send her my pic and had to go with snail mail. I was using phone cards to call her up long distance multiple times a week. As it turned out she wasn't--and isn't--much of a gamer, and since I eventually made the decision to go back to college, I continued to have no time for gaming. This was the situation for five years full of ups and downs. As a newly minted--yet, already 35 year old--licensed teacher with no teaching experience in the thick of the so-called 'Great Recession' I found myself going overseas to work. Taiwan was my first stop and there wasn't much English being spoken out there. I tried to run a zombie survival type scenario for a bunch of 7th graders in my "club" using candy for a reward, but they were far more interested in the candy than the gaming. I never found any colleagues or enthusiasts that wanted to play so Taiwan was a bust and not just for gaming and I left them behind after only year of employment.

My next teaching gig was in the UAE and it lasted for nine years. I've documented before that I played more during that time than possibly any other time in my life. I tried to run using various board game versions of D&D including DragonStrike and Castle Ravenloft...along with full game version of 4E and Ryuutama. There were varying degrees of success, but at least I was running. I mention here that I somehow missed all of D&D 3.0 and 3.5 during my time away from gaming and didn't even know about editions and the like until this time. For a few years I ran virtual games via Roll*20 which slowly, but surely developed during this time period. I'm fairly sure I was once again in on the ground floor. Around year seven I found what I call my 'UAE Gaming Group'.  I ran Cyberpunk 2020, Curse of Strahd, and an Al Qadim game for them. Again...varying degrees of success. By the time of years eight and nine, I had gone back to primarily being a player. I wouldn't call any of those games flops, but they were definitely learning experiences. 

Finally--and not a moment too soon--this lands us right here in China and my current teaching gig. I was a player in a local group the first year I arrived, but did no running. When the Wuhan Flu hit and that group went our separate ways, I started running on Roll*20 again. I did a one shot of a KS project I backed called Heckna! in Halloween of 2020 and I've been running my current campaign--D&D 5E Hardcore Mode/Ryuutama mash-up--since early November 2021.

There it is my entire gamemastering career--possibly a reimagining of an early entry for all I know. I will close saying that if you haven't been DM/GM yet, you should give it a try. It's a lot of fun and it's like running your own character except so much more. You may have to go through a lot of weeds with the whole WOKE vs. OSR thing going on, but you can search YouTube and find several useful channels to help you run a game including Dungeon Craft (Dungeon Professor), Runehammer, and Seth Skorskowsky.

RPG A Day 2022: Day 7 System Sunday--Describe a Cool Part of a System that You Love.

 I don't think a year has gone by in my participation with the RPG a Day experiment that I haven't talked a little about Ryuutama. This system is a traditional rules lite fantasy TTRPG coming out of Japan. It is whimsical in tone and described as Miyazaki meets Oregon Trail due to its focus on travel. The feature that I'm going to talk about is the GM character called the Ryuujin. 

The Ryuujin are small, lesser Dragons in this setting that are raising what are called Seasonal Dragons. These powerful Seasonal Dragons grow by hearing the Ryuujin tell stories about the adventures of the party. The Ryuujin come in four colors: Green, Azure, Crimson, and Black. Each color has its own features and also gives a hint to the tone of the campaign. Greens are general, Azures are love/family, Crimsons are action, and Blacks are sorrow/death. 

Many TTRPG commentators will tell you that the DM/GM should never have his own character as a part of the party. I can see that--especially when it comes to leveling up a DM/GM character alongside the other PCs--as these types of characters potentially steal the spotlight from the players. What's more the GM/DM character knows all the secrets if GM/DM wants him to. The Ryuujin is a bit different and works to put the spotlight on the PCs. I would say they are about as helpful as 'Dungeon Master' in the old D&D cartoon except they do level up--on their own scale--and the powers that they have can help or hinder the party...whatever makes for a more interesting story. 

I've taken to using the gimmick in every campaign I run. Having a Ryuujin in a fantasy setting fits seamlessly, but even in a setting like Cyberpunk, having a similarly powered permanent NPC embedded in the group gives the GM/DM a voice within the narrative that is distinct from his role as arbiter and lessens the burden of coming up with a parade of NPCs that just happen to be there right in time when the players need them. 

RPG A Day. 2022: Day 6--How Would You Get More People Playing RPGs?

I think the interest is there, but as "big" as RPGs have become--specifically D&D in the States and Call of Cthulhu internationally--they are still niche and small potatoes. Generally speaking, people have neither the time nor the desire to read books that are over 200 pages long. If they have a life with responsibilities, they probably can't play any more than three hours a week--if they're lucky--whether they desire to do so or not. For all the 80's and beyond 'Satanic Panic' and today's Culture Wars that show supposed evils in the hobby, the one constant and true "evil" is that our hobby is a time sink. It can be a money sink too, but that's up to the individual. There are enough options these days to play for free and legally. It's the time and lack thereof that is the biggest deterrent to regular, sustained play. What should we do?

1. Explain the rules in a simplified way: You should be able to explain the rules as if you were giving an elevator pitch in a movie. As I mentioned yesterday, if you don't have time for a session zero, that one shot  can take a good ten to fifteen minutes to get the rules and general concept communicated to newbs, and they'll get lost no matter what you say, so it's better to get right on it. Say something like:  "It's like playing cowboys and indigenous peoples, but we roll dice when the outcome of an action is in doubt"

2. Choose a rules light system: Several games I've played lately could be considered 'rules light', but they're not 'kiddie' strictly speaking. In fact, I've found a few "kiddie" games in searching for an easier entry-level game for my young daughter that had more "crunch" and high-concept rules than she would ever be able to play with.  The stories and settings may be kid friendly, but the rules sure weren't. I choose games like ICRPG, Tiny Dungeon, Ryuutama and the Deathbringer supplement are all easy to get into. Any system that is D6 based like 'Tiny Dungeon' is going to infinitely easier to the beginner just because we're all familiar with the D6 dice. I haven't played Deathbringer, but I understand it is only pamphlet sized.

3. Choose basic race/roles/class: If I want more people playing--and staying at the table--I have to follow K.I.S.S. procedure. Letting an inexperienced user play some crazy race, advanced role or class--Magic User (fantasy) or Netrunner (cyberpunk)--won't be good for the players or the DM. There was a reason why D&D had basic and advanced versions way back when. In the case like the Netrunner in cyberpunk, it would be better to regulate that to NPC only no matter how interested the player may be in running one. You don't want any gimmicky race or class slowing down the game for the others at the table while you deal with them.

4. Keep the sessions shorter:Err on the shorter side for the session and leave the players wanting more. YMMV but for me and wanting more people to play means making the session shorter. I normally play at three hours max and we have managed to have a weekly game for the most part since last November. Once in a great while we may run over, but my goal is to always finish under. It's hard to clear out even three hours for the Average Joe on a consistent basis nowadays. Those 8 hour marathons from our youth are out of the question--consistently. If you want to play regularly, it has to be a short session. The creator who's able to create a system that can provide satisfying results after one hour of play could make a mint.

I'll end it here to practice what I preach, but in summary, if we can simplify the rules and run quicker games, more people are likely to get into playing and keep playing.   

RPG A Day 2022:Day 5--Anecdote Alternative

 Couldn't really think of any specific reasons why anybody would like to play in the hypothetical "first game" we've been talking about other than some of the general info already in the blog entries. Either they'll like it or they wont. The fact is, I don't have too many anecdotes to tell either. I find that strange as I'm sitting here wracking my brain trying to come up with a decent story to tell...let alone coming up with people to tag...that I have plenty of hours in at live tables, across many nations BTW--love my VTT groups but even the ones that are closest to becoming real friends are gaming friends only and I have no 'real' knowledge of their personal lives, so what can I tell you? I'll summarize a recent play with a lot of rookie players that I was a part of.

The most recent live game I've been a part of took place among teachers after school at my current place of employment. This particular school has an activity called "Sharpen the Saw" wherein the teachers should take in an afternoon activity--about an hour--that some would call mandatory fun or a team building exercise. One of my colleagues decided to run a one-shot of D&D and it was approved, so naturally I signed up.

The first problems was what edition to run. I suggested he go with 5th because it is easier and most likely current players will be expecting that one, and it's better for rookies--my Pathfinder Beginners Box is stuck out in the Philippines, but that's another story.

Then, the next problem is that there is just no way one can run even the most bare bones one-shot in an hour. There is no session zero so we just have to jump right in. Should I attempt to do the thing next year, I'd try to be in touch with everyone by email in the weeks leading up to the event just to get everyone on the same page. As it stood he went with pre-gen characters to save a little time. I lessened that burden by bringing my own character, but in the end we still wound up being short a character leaving one of the experienced players scrambling to quickly generate one for himself. That led to the next problem of having rookies and experienced players at the table. If I remember correctly, we ended up with three rookies--the only girl was a female Chinese colleague with the English name 'Hamburger' who didn't speak much English--and three experienced players along with the DM. That would have been a bit unwieldy for me. Personally, six players is right at my max, but I prefer 3-5. Our DM carried on. 

This mix of newbies and oldies brought us to the next hurdle. The experienced players tried to help the first timers, but it was a bit of a clown show. I can't speak for the other guys, but coming in directly after a day at work means my own brain was already mush.  I'm not completely shy at the table, but I'm also not the most vocal either, so unless I'm the DM, I'm easily drowned out by more verbose players, and the later it gets--the more quiet I become. These factors made the game run more slowly than it should have and we were already pressed for time. It's such a fun hobby, but so difficult to explain to the true first timer.

We managed to get our feet in the door with a set-up. There was a little bit of role play there and I got to try a spell, but all the magic wasn't working for some reason. We then went literally down a rabbit hole for the adventure. The DM decided to run a world using creatures from the Final Fantasy video game series. It didn't really matter in the end, and personally, I never critique someone willing to run as it gives me a break, but I think if I were in charge of it, I would have stuck with more traditional monsters. There needs to be something for the newbies to hang their hats on. The FF series has a lot of weird stuff going on and that's cool, but for rookies? Since we were already running under time constraints, it takes less time not having to describe these off the wall monsters. To make it less of a burden I'd just throw some goblins out there and call it a day.

Text messages started coming in at around the 45 minute mark of our scheduled hour, and fifteen minutes later when we actually were an hour in, a few already needed to go. I think Hamburger hung in there for a little while, but eventually she left too. I'd have liked to sink my teeth into that Hamburger...but I digress. We ended up having two combat encounters--one kind of introduced the crazy creature we were fighting and the second had us fighting a pack of them; can't remember exactly but they were either snails or some living plants of some sort.

It was around the 90 minute mark right at the end of the second encounter when we decided to go ahead and wrap everything up. I remember that there were four of us that stuck around to the end--DM included. We had one real rookie standout--the P.E. coach. He was really using his imagination and pushing what his character could do. He tried to come up with something unique on each turn of combat. Of course, that's not sustainable and the DM was letting him get away with murder--er, that is--encouraging creative game play :) but he showed a lot of potential to continue with the hobby. We all agreed that we should meet again and run a live table right at the school. 

That was either in April or May of this year, and in spite of all our promises to schedule a real gaming time, you can probably guess that we have yet to meet up again for another session. I have my VTT weekly game and the reason I have it is that I push myself to get up and do it...even when I don't feel like it. The DM in this story forces some gaming from his wife and kids at times, but hasn't fully pulled the trigger to game with me in spite of us living in the same building. Scheduling is just a pain in the butt and the bane of all would be TTRPG groups. When we go back next year--which is to say in September--we may give it another shot. I'm thinking to run 'Alice is Missing' for them, but they'll need to commit to 2hrs if they want me to do it. 

RPGaDAY Day 29: System

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 29 'System'

Running late today especially out in China, but in the spirit of not missing a single prompt, today I'll very quickly talk about my favorite system.

When it comes down to it, D&D5E is the best system for me warts and all. It's easy to play without being overly simplistic. There is a huge user base, so with a little looking you can usually find a group to play with. Since most people are familiar with the system and apps like D&D Beyond make character creation easy, it usually doesn't take long to get right to playing. Even when WotC isn't producing supplements that I want, I find that 3rd parties are constantly coming up with things that I do. Almost everything I like to play runs on the 5E engine either directly or with tweaks.

I have to mention Runehammer Games once again. I am crazy for Index Card Roleplaying Game which is stand alone, but also lets you plug several gimmicks in to make 5E better. Then there's D&D Hardcore Mode which makes 5E feel a little more oldskool.

There is a new product coming from Runehammer Games--which just partnered with Modiphius for distribution--called Viking Death Squad. It is a stand alone game with nothing to do with D&D as such but I can't wait to play it because the art and ideas from Runehammer have been great so far.

https://www.modiphius.net/collections/new-arrivals-1/products/viking-death-squad

#RPGaDAY2021:Day 28--DELVE

 #RPGaDAY2021 for day 28 I rolled a '4' and got 'Delve'.

From a quick Google search I get this:

"What does it mean to delve deeper?

to examine something carefully in order to discover more information about someone or something:

It's not always a good idea to delve too deeply into someone's past".

Depending on one's level of sensitivity that might be good advice. Sometimes one can look back on a person's life--particularly someone we admire--and find statements they may have said or beliefs they held that would be problematic--so called--in today's society. Even more tricky is when the person is no longer with us to defend themselves or clarify their statements. Of course my hope would be--in the case of most TTRPG pioneers--that they would double-down on the "offense" and tell the snowflakes to grow a pair, but I digress.

Notwithstanding the fact that I am far more offended by what is deemed, "acceptable, normal behavior" today, than what was common in the fairly recent past, it wouldn't take too much digging to find something published or said that one doesn't agree with. That doesn't mean you need to CANCEL the past or clutch your pearls and add disclaimers to the front of everything.

We're focused on TTRPGs here, but clearly this happens with all sorts of media. I'm not sure when people became so sensitive and started "straining on the gnats while swallowing the camels" to paraphrase another book from the past that people get offended by, but it certainly wasn't that way back in the 80's and 90's.

All that rambling and preambling to say that for those who are daring enough to delve deep into the dark past of Dungeons and Dragon, you should checkout 'Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History'. No doubt it has probably been sanitized for our consumption, but there is a lot of great artwork showing how D&D evolved from past to present--including some "spicy" advertising campaigns that will probably have snowflakes demanding the book come with a warning label. I'll give one myself.

WARNING: Product was produced in 2018 and the level of WOKENESS among the professionally offended grows exponentially with each passing year. BEWARE!

Side Note: If you never watched 'Song of the South' you should rectify that at your earliest convienence. While everything is subjective to the viewer's own tastes, I find it to be a sweet and gentle movie with a lot of classic animation and humor that only the flakiest snowflakes would find offensive in the least.

RPGaDay2020--Day 27--Fraction

#RPGaDAY2021 Day 27. I rolled another '1' and got 'fraction'. I'm not going into any depth at all for my responses during these final days.

I will say that I hate all forms of math including fractions and that way back when I took the S.A.T.s it was proof. I had a natural '20' in English but a '1' for the maths.

The other things that pops into my head about 'fractions' is that in spite of all the TTRPGs I own, I only play something different than D&D 5E a small fraction of the time, and in spite of what my wife may think, I only back a small fraction of the group funded projects that I wish I could support.

RPGaDAY 2021: Day 25--Tradition

 Day 25--Rolled a '2' which gives me the prompt 'Tradition'.

Another potentially 'spicy' prompt if I wanted to go for it. Luckily, we're in the death throes of #RPGaDAY2021 and I'm keeping all the remaining entries short and (fairly) sweet.

No matter where you stand in the geek hobby culture war--at least as it pertains to TTRPGs--I think there is one common ground we can agree on when we talk about tradition. What is viewed as tradition is largely going to be based on what the particular individual grew up playing.

Many of us stalwarts of the hobby are going to defend the traditions of alignment--including inherently 'evil' races, DM/GM caveat, and an overall combat heavy game with several elements the typical SJW player of today likely finds "problematic". However, a lot of us "old timers" aren't the oldest. A person like me--an 80's kid in his late 40's--is not a part of that first generation of TTRPG enthusiasts. We really aren't the so-called "grognards" although we probably have a lot more in common with them than the nu-players who want X-cards and safe spaces . Most of us won't be calling for a return to THAC0 or games that need 'callers' or rule-sets that are extra crunchy. We didn't grow up with it, so it isn't a tradition for us.

I wonder if those 'grognards' felt as bad as I often do about the hobby today back when their old systems were replaced by the newer ones came out in the 80's? I think the biggest difference is that the changes and revisions made to editions in the past--apart from removing demons and devils back in the "Satanic Panic" days--weren't made as a part of a political fringe movement and the goal wasn't to run the old folks out of the hobby.

To be honest--strictly looking at the game system and none of the super-WOKE policies of the companies--DND 5E is a great game engine. I think it was built keeping tradition in mind. It's only in recent years that WotC took the hard turn to the left. Hopefully, the pendulum will swing back again some day.

RPGaDAY2021:Day23--Surprise

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 23 and yet again I rolled a '4' which means 'surprise' is the topic.

We're 23 days in, so no doubt about it my thoughts are starting to peter out, but I always try to make at least a short comment each day even if it's only as an exercise for myself.

So, what has surprised me most about the hobby in recent years? I have to again mention the popularity of the crowd funded indy projects.

I don't back every project that I want--I'm like a kid in the candy store and my wife would file for divorce if I did--but here is final tally on the recent projects I backed:

Adventures in Oz--$187,125

Anime 5E--$608,702

HECKNA!--$653,970

Some made more than others, but each one is a huge success in my mind. My most recents happen to be running on the 5E engine, but I have backed several other successful projects that had nothing to do with D&D...and now we have this one:

Avatar Legends $6,870,567 (as of this post 10 more days to go)

This one isn't for me, but in my mind this kind of money isn't being spent on a dying hobby. It's showing me that the sky is the limit even for imaginative independent creators...especially if they can get a hold of a well-loved IP.

RPGaDay:Day 22--Substitute

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 22:Substitute

This will be the shortest one yet. Here in no particular order are the RPG (related) activities that I enjoy: 

* Reading rulebooks and old modules

* Reading or listening to novels based on TTRPGs

* Watching TTRPG discussion or unboxing videos 

* Working on my VTT campaign

* Commenting on the hobby--just like here

* Watching streaming games

* Playing RPG style video games

* Playing non-RPG style video games

* Watching movies with RPG themes

* Playing on a VTT

* Running on a VTT

* Playing a one-off live table with strangers

* Playing a one-off live table with friends

* Collecting older RPG materials including: dice and toys

* Backing TTRPG crowd funding projects--much to the wife's chagrin. 

All of these activities and any I may have missed are fun for me and keep me in touch with the TTRPG hobby when I can't play, but each and everyone of them are just a substitute--and sometimes a poor one--for playing in a regular live table with a group of well-known, life-long friends.

RPGaDAY 2021: Day 21--Motive

 #RPGaDAY2021 Day 21 and I'm running a little late out in my neck of the woods. I rolled the D4 and got a '4' again. That means I need to use daggers more when playing on Roll 20, but more importantly it means my topic is 'Motive'.

I think about motive IRL and when I'm playing the TTRPGs. 'What's the end game?' 'Why are you doing the things that you do?' 'What will you get out of what you're doing?' and a bit of a problem in my mind 'What motivates a non-human character...especially a powerful one?'

In fiction stories there are always villains who want to "rule the world". I guess I'm not motivated by power because that would seem like a lot of work for me. If you were a god what would motivate you to do anything? You don't have to eat, you're not going to die. I suppose you might want more power, followers, or a better place to reign. Maybe if you saw some cute gnome girl running around you might come around to see her Zeus style, but even then when you're that powerful does it make sense that you would even care.

IRL I'm a Christian and I believe that God is motivated by love, but I can't come up with a reason why He wants to have anything to do with a bunch of wicked minded gnats like us. However, I'm very grateful that He does.

RPGaDAY: Day 14--Momentum

 #RPGaDAY2021 and for day 14 I rolled a '4' for the 'momentum' prompt.

You know what's losing momentum? My summer vacation. I'm down to the last week off--with 7 week days additional planning time without students which counts as continued vacation for me. Nevertheless, when RPGaDay is over, so is my time away from the kids.

You know what's gaining momentum? The backlash to the WOKE. So many normal people are starting to realize that the companies that own the IPs that they used to love have no love for them, and that one doesn't have to support an inferior TV show, movie or dare I say TTRPG manufacturer just because they slap the name of a beloved franchise on it. I like that in short order we more or less said 'No!' to Masters of the Universe. I'm pleased that Mr. Potato Head gets to stay a Mister. I'm filled with joy that the ratings for all major awards shows and sporting events are in the toilet. I'm actually a little disappointed that 'The Suicide Squad' got caught in the backlash--it's a good movie, check it out! But momentum is clearly on the side of normal people.

Overall, apart from said collateral damage, I'm feeling better about the pop-culture community at large these past few months than I have in years. I think we--who support tradition--are voting with our wallets. Which for all their pandering and virtue signalling is all that really matters to these huge companies. The momentum is with us. If we want to be culture warriors and steer away from the SJW madness, then we should only spend money on products that speak to us and let the market decide. Wonderfilled (formerly part of TSR 3.0), for a recent example, has refused to take the knee in spite of the pressure, so we should support them--I'm afraid to because they haven't delivered their products yet, but still. Solarian Games (formerly TSR 2.0) is another company that wanted no part of controversy, but just produces small indy games wherein gaming is the focus, not politics. At the same time, don't support the stuff that you don't believe in. Just because a company's logo is slapped on it and you want to be a completionist, it doesn't mean you should buy-in--it sends the message to companies to make more of the same, and that's what you'll get.

RPGaDAY2021: Day 10--Light

 #RPGaDAY2021 it's day 10 and I rolled a '3' which makes today's topic 'light'.

A part of the fun of doing these entries is just to see if I can come up with something to say for 31 straight days. Today is going to be one of those writer's block days with the 'light' topic. All I can really think of is 'Rules-Light' and how I prefer that style of game to the more "crunchy" games of yesteryear. I think a lot of it has to do with the availability of free-time.

I enjoy reading new systems and even creating characters and scenarios for games that I'm very unlikely to even get the chance to play. I'm sure a lot of you do the same since I'm preaching to the choir, but most people just don't have that much time to engage in the hobby. Rules-light systems are easier to get into and a lot easier to explain to players who may not purchase or read the game rules. Almost all modern games are heading in this direction or at the very least provide a 'quick start' version. I would argue that D&D 5E on the whole is fairly rules-light already, but I really like what was done with Index Card Roleplaying Game. It shifts a lot of things around and even adds a mechanic or two, but overall it streamlines 5E like nobody's business. I'd also mention the starter sets/beginner's boxes for Cyberpunk:RED and Pathfinder (haven't played the 2E BB yet, but I'm sure it's good) are in my opinion good enough to keep playing without expanding to the full-rules sets especially for the casual players.

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