…seven years?
Cripes.
A lot has happened since the last time I posted here. In no particular order:
- I started the Delve campaign, a deliberately disconnected series of mini-campaigns we’ve been using to explore settings and mechanics that wouldn’t support a full campaign on their own. It’s been my most regular TTRPG event during hiatus. Another DM and I went back and forth running it for four years or so before it went on break so I could get do season 3 of Faith.
- I started season 3 of Faith. It’s currently a little over halfway done, I guess? The structure of the campaign makes it difficult to tell how close to the end we actually are, but that’s another topic.
- D&D 5.5E came out, in which Wizards of the Coast realized that I was right all along and removed all racial ability score modifiers. That was cathartic. No word on whether they’re considering full-on damage type reskinning or any other necessary changes.
- D&D Beyond became a subscription service where you still have to buy a digital copy of every book even if you already own a physical copy, which I’ve seen brilliantly described as “great news for every tabletop game that isn’t Dungeons & Dragons”.
- There was a D&D movie! I did not see it. I still can’t stand Forgotten Realms as a setting and I don’t like this Fortnite-esque movement toward forcing every story into the same interconnected universe.
- There was a D&D video game! I have played it for 352 hours so far. I know this seems incongruous with the above point but, in my defense, my wife made me do it.
- I tried to get into paid DMing. It’s not gone great so far, but it’s reigniting that “oh, right, I have a thousand campaign ideas” spark, so there’s some good coming out of it.
- I’ve picked up video editing and streaming. The former has gone better than the latter, though it’s unlikely that I’ll be making D&D videos because I don’t know what images I would put to my general ranting about tabletop gaming.
- I got laid off. Twice. This isn’t hugely relevant to my gaming history but it probably explains some things about my creative output and mental state (and the previous two points).
- …a pandemic or something?
Part of the reason I went away was because I wasn’t sure how much I still had to say about tabletop gaming. I still feel a little left behind by D&D proper and I think that’s by design; the current design meta is not interested in the sort of things that pique my interest. It seemed prudent to separate myself from it.
These days I’m a bit less interested in doing what’s smart and more interested in doing what’s fun. I’m still figuring out what exactly that is, but it’s a start. You have to know what direction you’re going before you can see how far you’ve gone.