Sense Motive
This is mostly a needless background on who I am and my experience with getting into RPGs and writing. You will likely learn more about who I am through actual blog posts. Off the bat, I can say if words or phrases like politics, inclusiveness, BIPOC, LGBT, ACAB, or similar "woke" culture upsets you, then feel free to leave. We've been here just as long as you. This isn’t your space.
For the rest of you, I hope you can come to stand my writing style, I prefer digestable paragraphs, conversational style, and an excessive use of visuals. I also do my best to include a simplified bibliography or link list at the bottom of any posts that refer to other articles, books, or references. I try to include links mid-post, but they should also be at the bottom with a brief included.
I ALWAYS encourage you to follow those links, I include them not just to give credit where it is due, but because if I'm using the information, it means I like the writer, and think you will enjoy their work. There is always something new to discover out there, and I hope I can point you at some excellent content.
Of course, why listen to my opinion in the first place? Well, in vague, short detail, lets talk about me.
Survival Check
My formative experiences with gaming can be traced back to two particular sources: HeroQuest and Final Fantasy VII. Surprise this is an all around nerd blog, not just TTRPGs. Well, mostly TTRPGs.
HeroQuest not only introduced the basics of classic RPG mechanics to me; HP, Stats, Equipment, Magic, Dungeon Crawling; but included perhaps one of the most exciting ideas for a young mind. After completing all the adventures in the book, the last page suggested making your own. Everyone has played pretend, but I'd never been told to, or done so within a structured environment like this.
I still have a folder of some of my old HQ notes. Dungeons, equipment, classes, spells. HeroQuest was so core to my future game development style, that the basic rolling mechanic was adopted for one of my own published games. Of course, is HeroQuest an RPG? Not really, its a board game with RPG elements. Neither in old or new school style are you playing a role, except in the most pedantic of meanings. But that kernel of creativity set me down the path anyway.
So while HQ showed me that games could be creative, they were still not interesting places to explore stories or collaborate. I played quite a few D&D computer games, like Eye of the Beholder or any number of Gold Box games through the 90s, but those only simulated the mechanics, and never really got to the core of story telling, puzzle solving, or party camaraderie. Your characters were blank slates and you had no real opportunity to play roles.
That changed in 1998. I walked into a store and saw an alluring stack of trapezoidal stark white boxes calling out to me. The seventh game in a series I had never heard of before was now on sale for PC, and I wanted it. Possibly one of the worst PC ports ever made, but one of the best games ever made. FF7 showed me that games could be so much more. Characters could have development, history, flaws, triumphs and tribulations. Your protagonist didn’t have to be a perfect badass, he could be a liar and a fraud, and hiding who he was from the world.
Finally in 1999 the last piece fell into place. Wizards of the Coast had recently purchased TSR, and by proxy, Dungeons & Dragons. A new starter set had been released "for" AD&D2e, but with simplified rules called "The Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game", not to be confused with the 3e starter of the same name. The box came with a GM screen with the town of Haven, pre-made character sheets, and a great yellow TSR branded dice bag; Which, while damaged, I still own.
Orb of Scrying
I had little chance to play games with the 2e set, as WOTC was determined to make the game their own and their third edition came out a year later. But, I read the contents over and over, and much like HQ, thought up my own variations and new content. With the advent of the d20 system and heading into high school, I was able to find more than one group to play with, and have had campaigns of one sort or another ever since. I played through 3.5, had a very brief tryst with 4e, plenty of Pathfinder, and eventually weaned off the ol' twenty sider for other dice in the World of Darkness, Traveller, RuneQuest, and beyond.
Like many prodigal gamers I returned to 5e when it became the main game in town again. The system was much more appealing than 4e and even 3.X, but the manner in which WOTC was publishing content, 50-60 dollar hard covers, with rarely a scrap of content between between these 6+ month droughts, left a lot to be desired. Until recently, I continued to play, always looking for a better option. It took bouncing off Dungeon Crawl Classics twice for me to delve into the expansive and inspired Nu-SR and OSR genre of games.
Scribe Scroll
Now to rewind a little bit. I mentioned that I had my own published games, so let's cover that briefly. If necessity is the mother of invention, then I suppose boredom is the deadbeat dad. In the late Aughts (2007-2010) I found myself with an excess of time, and no one to play RPGs with. Online gaming wasn't quite an ideal format yet, so I had my "Bender Moment" and started writing my own game instead. There is a very good chance you have NEVER heard of it. We had no idea what we were doing. This was before Kickstarter took off, and we never sold through our initial stock.
Actually, I tell a lie. You may have caught a glimpse of it in the parody film Dark Dungeons, being burned along with other RPGs because of satanic panic. We gave them the last of our stock as props.
I'd say we learned a lot, but we kept making games, so I suppose we didn't learn a thing. Wargaming was OBVIOUSLY the next insane step in our quest for world domination, and with the help of Kickstarter, we launched a miniatures line and wargame. While it wasn’t a BATTLESYSTEM type flop, it wasn't Warhammer 40k either. It wasn't even Malifaux, by fellow Florida-based Indie company Wyrd.
Getting distributors to carry is a struggle for an indie company. Especially as we had no advertising budget to speak of. Without stores across the country asking for it, Distro wouldn’t carry, and fewer stores wanted to carry until they could get it through their Distro; an endless circle of defeat. But we took it in stride, hit conventions, met folks, made lifetime fans and friends, and ....had fun? Never made any money though.
Henchmen & Hirelings
The toughest part of it all was making miniatures in house. We spent weeks sweating in the garage to cast resin miniatures in a pressure pot. It made the Breaking Bad RV scenes feel too real. My hands still shake from years cutting silicone molds. So, my wife and I eventually parlayed our skills into freelance. She now produces 3D printing for cosplay and wargaming accessories. While I stick to writing supplements for other company's game books. However, that itch to write my own works has come crawling back. So, that’s why this blog is here.
I hope to make this a place to keep a dev-log of small projects I work on. A space for rambling monologues discussing theory, history and anything else that strikes my fancy, Even a repository for sharing game aids or other little downloads I make.
If you read through all that, you have infinite patience. I hope you'll stick around through my real posts. I cannot guarantee they'll be any shorter. If you're interested in any of my work, some of it can be found at Drive Thru RPG. As of writing it is all under my dead name, unfortunately. I hope to eventually publish something better with my real name on it.