Okay, today is going to be a little different.

Happy Valentine’s Day for those who celebrate. I thought about making today’s prompt about love in fantasy TTRPGs and that would have been the easy route to take. As I have said many times, I love TTRPGs because they bring me joy. If you look at the frequency of joy, it’s right up there with love.

So, today I’d like to talk about TTRPGs and the joy they bring me. It’s not quite a game based article, but it’s still about gaming. I’ve been at this for a long time and, family aside, it’s one of the true joys I’ve found in life.

I’m going to get spiritual about this for a moment.

Meditation is great. Peace of mind is wonderful. But humans innately crave stimulation. Oftentimes that stimulation comes from interacting with other humans. (*Don’t get me started on some of the trauma that has brought me along with the good times.)

Everything is about choices. We chose to be incarnated on this planet at this time in this space with one another. We choose what we do and who we interact with every day. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we choose which emotions we feel as much as the words we say and the things we do. In essence we choose what we manifest and what frequency we vibrate at.

If you’ve followed my blog for long, you’ve probably heard me say, “There’s no such thing as coincidence.” (*I will happily die on that hill.) There is what is called synchronicity. I think synchronous events are fascinating. I’m referring to real life and gaming both.

Synchronicity is one of my favorite topics to discuss and experience.

Have you ever randomly seen a sequence of repeating numbers? Ex: 111, 333, 999, or even 666. It’s a sign from the Universe. It’s a higher consciousness trying to speak to you. (*All of my atheist friends just rolled their eyes. Apologies because we disagree here.) Repeating numbers, even seemingly random ones, are meaningful. This also kinda sparked some interest in Numerology for me, but we’ll save that for another discussion.

Synchronicity is what got me back into TTRPGs heavily. I started carrying a bag of polyhedral dice around with my as a thought experiment back in 2017 and every so often I would pull one out (usually the d12) and play around with synchronicity. Sometimes I roll the whole lot to see what I get. It’s mind blowing to see repeated 12s, 3s, and 1s.

I don’t remember where I learned about this, but a professor somewhere did an experiment with a d10. It involved walking down the street and using the d10 as an oracle for where to turn, what to look for, etc. He had some really fascinating encounters out in the real world and sometimes ended up back where he started. After seeing it, I started carrying my dice again just to recreate that thought experiment and then some.

Roll synchronicity, choices, and human interaction together and what do you get?

The obvious answer to me is: TableTop RolePlaying Games! I wouldn’t be here with the love and joy for games if not for those elements. I also find a lot of joy in books, creativity and math rocks in general and that definitely factors in.

I have a lot of joy in creating experiences for others where they get to choose what happens and let the dice fall where they will. There is just nothing else quite like it. Storytelling is one of the oldest human traditions, dating back to the origins of language and culture as we understand it. Earth has a rich tradition of storytelling in almost every culture. TTRPGs are just a way to create an interactive storytelling experience together.

Remember the excitement of playing a fantasy TTRPG for the first time?

Before it all went to pieces.

Those were the days. We probably played at least three or four hours every day and more on weekends. I wasn’t a player long before I was thrust into my lifetime role as a Dungeon Master/Game Master.

The first day as a player was so intensely fun, though. Rolling my first character, an Elf named Sato. I don’t remember much about the dungeon itself other than I couldn’t wait to create one of my own. That night I went home and made a notebook full of characters. Not long after I bought my Basic (Red) and Expert (Blue) boxes. I made so many characters that summer. Obviously not tons of backgrounds, but lots of NPC fodder.

In the years since, I’ve introduced kids and adults to Dungeons & Dragons many times over. It’s almost always an amazing, good time. I met my now wife at a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention where I was running many, many games. Fantasy games have always had a special place in my heart.

Nowadays my joy is found in:

Making new game supplemental sourcebooks to give GMs and players even more choices. Yes, writing adventures/dungeons is fun. I love creating short dungeons and providing adventure ideas. I’ve gotten a lot less attached to running the story or creating a complicated plot. I throw ideas out there, and if the players go for it, that’s great. If not? We’ll go with whatever they want to do.

It’s not to say I’ll never write and publish an adventure for (name a system/setting.) It might not even be for fantasy, because I do really love superhero and sci-fi TTRPGs. Adventures are great. If I start doing conventions again, I will probably start writing one-shots again.

This year my new mantra became, “Embrace the thing that brings the most joy.” I’m pursuing things that I truly enjoy talking about. The only time I break from the really fun stuff is when a large corporation or some other clowns raise a stink in my beloved TTRPG industry. Try as I might, I can’t put the rose-colored glasses on and pretend the Reptilians, the Illuminati, bigots, and Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast don’t get on my nerves with their shenanigans. Long story short- as long as your joy doesn’t cause others to suffer, I can talk about things I enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by. These articles every day are another source of joy. I appreciate you all so freakin much. More tomorrow.