The Tactile Appeal, or, the weight of tangibility
The first RPG I ever played was D&D 3.5. It wasn’t my introduction to RPGs. I knew full well what they were like. I had grown up around them, listening in on my family’s regular sessions. I had read a fair few! Or, at least, flipped through them. But, I had just turned 9, which…
Caring about characters, or, “what do I even enjoy about roleplaying?”
I like to make a point of trying new things. I find it’s very easy to feel like I’ve gotten stuck in a rut, and to not have a sense of how to get out of it, or even if there’s anything better out there in the first place. As life advice, I find this…
The Game Master and the game as servant
I’ve been having an interesting time with Draw Steel recently. At the start of 2023, Dungeons & Dragons’ new Open Gaming License was released, and people got upset. The history of the OGL and what it has meant for RPGs as a scene is a very long one to enumerate here, and is honestly centered…
The rules from the writing
So, I’ve been getting back into Exalted recently. Exalted is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Normally, I don’t traffic in guilt. I think it’s a rather useless emotion, especially in contexts of finding joy in things. And Exalted is definitely something I find joy in. But, like I said – guiltily. It’s…
Who signs their name? RPGs and authorship
Roleplaying is a creative exercise. I forget this, sometimes. Pretty continuously, as a matter of fact. I play a lot of roleplaying games on a regular basis in my life, and I also do creative work outside of them. Every so often, I find myself frustrated at a lack of creative energy, and I try…
Winning and losing in the games you can’t win
I’ve been doing some reading on GNS lately. (Please don’t leave, I haven’t even gotten to the bad part yet.) More specifically, I encountered this post by the irreplaceable Vincent Baker, which is a retrospective in some dimensions and a reinterpretation in others. And if you’ve never heard of GNS before, I think it can…
The weight of the world, or, On GMing
Have you ever GMed before? …This is a blog post, I can’t hear your answer. I don’t know why you bothered. To some degree, the GM is just a role like any other. Plenty of games have clearly defined roles of several types, several have no delineation and keep all players as equal, some have…
Smoke, mirrors, and satisfaction
I don’t like dying very much. (For clarity, this is a post about RPGs. My thoughts regarding death in real life are a matter for another time.) I get attached to characters easily, and, often, some of the most fun I have in games involves slowly exploring the nuances of their personality and what riles…
Stunting, fictional positioning, and the tyranny of human intuition
There’s a mechanic that I hate, whenever I see it. It goes something like this: “When a player narrates their action in a cool or exciting way, they gain [insert bonus].” Or, even worse, if it’s paired with: “If they narrate their action in a repetitive or uninteresting way, they lose [insert penalty].” Now, on…
A callout post, I suppose
…Ugh. I do not enjoy this. So, a disclaimer. I am a rather negative person, in demeanor in general, but especially in critique. I try to make a point of reining that in when in public. On this blog, and on other public platforms I show up on, I have a policy to focus on…
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Ru's Roleplay Rants 