RPG A Day 2018 - Day One

So it's been a while since I've written in this blog. Life has been pretty dynamic these past 6 months. I got hired by Fantasy Flight Games as a freelance writer for a yet-to-be-announced product. I packed up my life and sold my home, and have been living in a close friend's basement guest room since April. My transient status and lack of real grounding home led to my creative energies being mostly non-existent, and greatly affected my ability to write, create, and run games. Still, I soldiered on an can state happily that I have found a new apartment, it's awesome beyond what I could have hoped for, and believe that this will lead to many good things to come.

I also got hired by FFG for another assignment, and am working on that for the bulk of August.

To keep my gaming writing fresh and my creative mind flowing, I'm going to do this year's RPG A Day challenge, as I did last year. The rules are simple; write about the daily topic. Now since I'm leaving for GenCon today, I'm going to be sporadic with this first week's posts. Normally I'd write them in advance, but recall me mentioning that writing gig from FFG? Likely that will consume most of my downtime onboard the aircraft out and back from GenCon. I've got a deadline, after all...

Anyway, here's Day One:

What do you love about RPGs?

As a Gamemaster, I love the communal creative process. I love coming up with the bare bones of a story, the general overarching idea of the plotline to a grand campaign, and then getting 4-6 friends together to flesh it out. I love challenging my players and seeing what creative ways they come up with to resolve the challenge. I love the stories that come out of them, that are told years and even decades later.

As a player, I love being something I'm not. I often play races as far from human as I can possibly get. I love putting classes or archetypes together in different combinations to see if I can get them to work and be effective. I love the challenge of assuming the role of someone "not me" for hours or even days at a time, and getting so into the role that they surprise me with how they respond to a situation (often in ways that Phil would not).

I've enjoyed this hobby for over 25 years, and I'm hopefully going to enjoy it for another 25. Maybe we'll get to sit together at the same table and make some memories.

See you in Indianapolis, Plano, or an internet galaxy far, far away.

May the dice be with you.