May came in like a lion, and it’s going out like an even bigger lion.

It’s Freedom Day May 2024 edition. That means it’s time to express my gratitude for getting kicked to the curb by my corporate job back in July of 2021. It’s fine. That job totally wasn’t serving me, anyway. I deserved better.

This particular month of May was pretty  bumpy coming on. We’re a busy family right now, especially with one on the verge of graduating next week. Holy buckets, one is graduating from high school next week! At that point, we’ll be one down and three to go. (Grin.)

The impending graduation of Child Number One is not the only pause for concern this month. We have two in baseball and three in swimming. Plus my wife’s year at school is wrapping up. You’d think that would be less exciting, but her behavior disorder students go a little more bonkers this time of year.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

I’ve had my  own (TTRPG related) agenda this month.

I would be remiss not to mention the BRP Design Challenge as there are only 12 days left. I submitted my first design, Steamship Nautica. I’m still excited about the challenge, but I’m super happy and grateful draft number one is turned in. I’m debating about throwing together a second submission for a game I’m tentatively calling Overgrowth.

Hey, if the BRP plan doesn’t go the way I’m intending, there’s always hope for the same game worlds rewritten under another Open Game License, Creative Commons, or other mutually beneficial system license. I’m not ruling anything out. I could rebuild the same game concepts under Cypher System, Shadowdark, or maybe FATE. I could also just put the whole thing out for free here on the blog or for fun using a d20 System of some kind.

My review of the Basic RolePlaying: Universal Game Engine will be coming along soon. I basically had a crash course, whirlwind romance, and got married to the thing this past couple of months. I feel like I know it pretty well now. It’s left me with a hankering for the latest Call of Cthulhu edition.

Speaking of new games…

I’ve discovered a couple of new gems while I was immersed in BRP over the last two months. The first is called Salvage Union. The second is Dragonbane. Both have different takes on the old familiar d20 rules.

I managed to score a copy of Salvage Union last month. I’d heard a ton of reviews that varied from one YouTube reviewer to the next. I finally decided to see what the hoopla was about and downloaded the Quickstart Guide. I enjoyed it enough to go after the book. My review of Salvage Union will drop sometime in the next month or so.

I’ve been reading through Dragonbane at my FLGS and downloaded the Quickstart for it. There are a lot of things going on with this game and I’m very intrigued by it. I’m saving up my lawnmowing money for the boxed set and the Dragonbane Bestiary. I’ll be rooting through the couches for spare change before it’s all over, I’m sure. Free League made it tough to decide between the hardcover book and the boxed set. The box has a softcover rulebook, but oh so many goodies.

“The Lion” is going to be a roller coaster in my amusement park.

I’d be lyin if I said this has been an easy, fluffy month. A stupid manupid online feud that originally started in April with a certain bitter old fart YouTuber has spilled over into this month. I’m doing my best not to drop a four letter word salad the likes of which has never been seen on my blog because of this dude. But hey, I guess making original positive TTRPG content on YouTube is difficult, so dude resorts to the other kind. It’s all for clickbait and clout even when he’s making up some trash.

As a side note, you can mash the “Report” button on YouTube like candy is going to spew out the other side and nothing ever gets done about someone’s bitter ass negative content. Meanwhile other channels are suffering with only half the number of subscribers because they’re making good content and trying to promote the TTRPG hobby in a healthy way. And heaven help you if you make a video that ends up on old bitter dude’s channel. Not all free press is good.

One of these days, that guy is going to cheese off someone with enough money, social media followers, pull with YouTube, or a great media lawyer. I wish no ill will on anyone at any time. Let’s not go overboard here. Spiritually and ethically that’s not cool. But if dude’s channel disappears from YouTube tomorrow, I will make a video and dance on camera.

My disagreement with [REDACTED] has led to some good things.

It’s Freedom Day, so I’d be remiss if I said there wasn’t at least one spiritual message mixed into all of this somewhere. I’d used to be a pretty bitter dude myself. I was never delusional enough to believe I was God’s gift to the TTRPG world, though. My troubles all stemmed from being overly attached to a young lady who wasn’t quite ready for that kind of relationship. In short, she broke my heart.

Sad and a touch bitter for years on end, I finally came out of my shell. I found love, positivity, eventually settled down, got married, and had kids. Shortly into that journey I had an Awakening and discovered my spiritual path. I learned that holding onto all that bitterness and anger was counterproductive, hurtful to  others around me, and an incredibly unhealthy vibration to be in all the time. It took my body finally giving out and years of chronic pain to figure it all out.

My wife has been my rock these last few years especially. I’m super happy and grateful she’s here with us. The kids have been pretty cool, too. They’ve had ten years of watching me try to figure out or feel my way through all this stuff. Their dad went from yelling, being negative, and cussing all the time to meditating as well as explaining really complicated things. (Okay, I try anyway. Try explaining Law of Attraction to an 11 year old sometime.) I still don’t have it all figured out by any means, but I do learn something new every day.

Another good thing is my social media cleanse.

This past week or so has been more peaceful and productive than most. I only glance at X (Twitter) or Threads a couple of times per day at most. I’ve taken notifications off for most people and only pop onto X (Twitter) long enough to check messages. The second I catch myself starting to scroll I stop and remember why I cut my social media intake way down.

I’ve also changed up my YouTube content to a few TTRPG Content Creators (shout out to The OG GM) and a lot of LoA/spiritual teachers. I’m discovering several new YouTube channels per day in both realms. I’ve enjoyed YouTube quite a bit these past few days. I’ve cut out a lot of the more toxic Content Creators and many of the popular D&DTubers. (Turns out I don’t miss the 20 minute long ads for someone’s latest Kickstarter.) Do you know how many smaller TTRPG channels there are?

I did just pick up a heap of Dragonbane Actual Play videos, reviews, and tutorials. I’m always fascinated by TTRPGs created by other cultures. Dragonbane, originally from Sweden, is a refreshing take on old school 80s Dungeons & Dragons. In this era of new fantasy games coming out like crazy, Dragonbane carves out a niche by being retro. I’ll put up a review of my own as soon as I somehow get a hold of it.

Looking forward to a calm June, maybe part of July.

I’m probably delusional. Things never slow down that much around here. We have summer swim if nothing else. Might have to help a kid move out of state. Plus birthdays and surprises are right around the corner.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.