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Showing posts from May, 2022

"Take Courage!" And The Purpose of Rules in TTRPGs.

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Available Now on Itch I make these games for fun. Mainly my own, but—hopefully—for the fun of others as well. "Take Courage!" Started out as an attempt to include my 5 year old son in the RPG hobby, and has only grown from there. After a few forays into the woods and darker places, I ran a game for my siblings and parents last Thanksgiving, and we decided to play as monster hunters in an airship pursuing a dragon. Being able to include my folks by explaining the rules in 5 minutes, building an adventure idea in 5 more minutes, and then helping them build characters in a final five minutes was refreshing, and seeing them laugh as they pulled off daring stunts with the rest of us kids was well worth every second spent on this system. So, what have I learned? Mainly this: TTRPGs are a means for us to step away from our normal situations and take on the role of someone else entirely. Reality is filled with important responsibilities, and we can't often go where we please and...

Realms, Warbands, and TTRPGs

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Recently I've been looking for a game to scratch the itch and fill the loose time that is otherwise spent scrolling through the endless echo-chambers of social media.  I wanted something that allowed me to forge a character and step into a world that couldn't care less about me.  I wanted a game that let me blaze my own trails, interacting with a world in interesting ways. I wanted a game with a moderate level of complexity, but a well-developed community that would help me get there. I found Mount & Blade. After a brief consultation with my wallet, I found Mount & Blade: Warband, the predecessor of their newer game, Bannerlord. While Warband lacks a few of the Quality of Life features and the graphical polish of Bannerlord, it's proving to be a fun game, and I found it on sale for $5 at the Humble Bundle. Fresh-faced and eager, I carefully crafted a hero and began the hard work of recruiting unfortunate souls for my warband. Unfortunate, because they would all be m...