At the beginning of 2023 I decided to take January for myself, before starting back on any projects. I figured a month was plenty of time to come to grips with some personal issues before I got back to TTRPG work.
Right impetus, wrong timeframe. Here we are, three months later, and I’m ready to get back to it. This might have been where I dropped an apology for being away, but honestly I think everyone should take the time they need to look after themselves. This year and going forward I plan to model that behaviour in hopes that other folks will feel comfortable doing it for themselves.
But just because I’m not sorry doesn’t mean I didn’t miss these weekly articles. I’m excited to be back at it and I have a slate of interviews, editorials, and general nerdiness lined up for the weeks and months ahead. In fact, next Monday we start strong with an interview with French designer René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas about his newest game Stoneburner, Kickstarting tomorrow. It’s a great interview if I say so myself, so please keep an eye out for it.
Besides interviews with excellent designers in the TTRPG space, I’m going to keep banging on with reviews of the games I love, talking about design theory, showing off my obsession with solo TTRPGs, and occasionally posting whatever silly shit comes to mind. So, you know, business as usual.
The mood in the TTRPG space seems to be particularly dour these days. All the business with Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro and the OGL, the vitriol lobbed at folks attending the WotC D&D Summit, and the ongoing dismissiveness towards creators outside North America; there’s a lot of anger, justified and not, seeming to use up a lot of air in the room. I’m not going to ignore that, I think much of it needs to be talked about and discussed. But I don’t think arbitrating these things in social media is the best course (though I have certainly been guilty of that myself) and I also believe that we need to look at more of the great stuff going on in our hobby. We all need a reminder that wonderful games, opportunities, and experiences are coming to life in our hobby every day and we should celebrate that more. We can call out the bullshit and still admire the flowers growing from it. We can do both, it won’t hurt anyone.
Anyway, short and sweet today. Take the time you saved from reading a long post here to go and find a new game, or gaming blog, or what have you, and explore that today. If you have some spare cash, find a creator on Itch who made a game you like and buy all their other stuff as well. Leave them reviews and five-stars wherever you bought them. Maybe tweet out a favourite creator and tell them how much you love their work. I promise you will make their day.
And I’ll see you all next week.
