Playing the format
Nowadays, most of my gaming is online. In part, this is a practical decision. A lot of the friends I have who are interested in the same sorts of games I am are scattered across the world, so doing things in person is very infeasible. It’s also a matter of preference of social dynamic -…
“Works on my machine,” or why it’s really hard to talk about RPGs
I don’t do reviews. I’ve considered it, don’t get me wrong. It’s not as if I’m opposed to reviews as a format, or anything like that. After playing an RPG for some time, I tend to come away with strong opinions, very much encompassing what the game does, what the game fails to do, and…
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…
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Ru's Roleplay Rants 