First store where you bought a TTRPG?
From a B. Dalton Bookseller in central Illinois.
Favorite TTRPG game world
I love Eberron 📖 as it provides a fixed point campaign with lots of layers of conflict. There’s space for an abundance of campaign styles.
First TTRPG you bought from its creator
I suspect it is Dogs in the Vineyard 📖.
TTRPG you’ve played the most
Easily Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Second Edition, in high school and college we were playing one or two sessions a week at 6 to 10 hours per session.
Favorite TTRPG for its art
Dungeon Crawl Classics 📖. The covers, interior art, and maps all evoke a sense of adventure, wonderment, and the bizarre.
Favorite TTRPG for its writing
I love Burning Wheel Gold 📖 and Burning Wheel Codex 📖; in part for the essays and discussion about the various game concepts. I also love the Sorcerer: Annotated Edition; again to get insight into the design process.
Have you played a journaling game
Right now I’m playing a The One Ring 📖 Strider Mode 📖 game: The Travels of Duinhir Tailwind.
Have you played a hex crawl
Sort of. While running Campaign: DCC Better World Gaming 📖 I began developing a hex crawl. Alas, the game faltered all too soon.
Have you designed a dungeon
Yes.
Have you played larp
Yes. A few.
Favorite object one of your characters has owned
I loved Lord Antonius de Mari’s Scintillante cityscape painting. It was one that he painted and in the fiction could induce Dwarven greed. This art piece begin entwining with the lore and interests of the many art collectors.
Memorable relationship one of your characters has had
In Burning Locusts, my character (Lord Antonius de Mari) had a multi-decade friendship with Biagio di Bartolo. Antonius was the captain of the Radiant Company and Biagio it’s quartermaster.
After the decimation of the Radiant company, Biagio became a politician and Antonius an artist. They continued to meet over games of Go. And both trusted and respected each other.
They called in favors and called each other on their shit.
Do you collect TTRPGs by a certain designer
No. Though my shelves might argue otherwise.
TTRPG you really want to play in 2023
Apocalypse World: Burned Over 📖, Trophy Gold 📖, and Brindlewood Bay 📖.
Most memorable monster/villain you’ve confronted in a TTRPG
I love villains who entwine with the goals of the Player Characters (PCs 📖) and invariably drift apart. I suspect Lord Jade and even Biagio di Bartolo would have become villainous. Or the dwarf who was running the Ogre Head Ale’s franchise taverns while the PCs were adventuring, and then we learned he was screwing over the folks running those taverns.
Ever experienced bleed
Yes.
How did you get into TTRPGS
I wrote about this in A is for Alpha Dawn. But an adolescent friend brought over a copy of Star Frontiers 📖 and I feel in love with the emergent stories and overlay of rules.
Conclusion
I find these reflective questions a great opportunity to reflect on what it is about Role Playing Games (RPGs 📖) that continue to attract my attention. It’s about adventure and crafting a shared narrative with rules and structure to guide in it’s creation.