Already?!?

I feel like I blinked and here we are already. It’s been a pretty busy month around here so far. I’ve had mostly good news, and things are going pretty well overall.

There has been a huge shake up in the TTRPG community it seems with the Dungeons & Dragons leads, Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford both stepping out of the company. That having been done along with some other key Wizards of the Coast execs now being gone has given me a glimmer of hope for D&D. While I’m not rushing out to buy D&D 5.2024-25 just yet, I am at least open to looking more closely at the official releases going forward and maybe even running D&D again.

Dragonbane is still my Number One when it comes to fantasy TTRPGs.

The system is infinitely expandable much in the way Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying and D&D 5E are. The rules are simple and light. I can kitbash anything, even if it comes from some other game. I don’t really get tired of modifying and creating new monsters.

It’s true Dragonbane is only one of hundreds of fantasy TTRPGs, many of which we have seen released or rereleased this year. You can’t swing a dice bag right now without hitting another fantasy game and there are still more coming. Budgets all over the world are tightening up right now because of politics and sketchy economic decisions by a certain world leader. We can only afford so much.

I have an infinite wealth of Dragonbane ideas at my disposal already. I also still have my collection of TTRPGs from my many years of collecting. I can convert from all 50 years of D&D and dozens of other games such as Earthdawn, Bushido, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Legend of the Five Rings, Legend of the Burning Sands, Sovereign Stone, Rolemaster, and so many more. However, being exposed to all these games over the years has left me with a pretty clear idea of what I want to run, build, do, and create with Dragonbane. As I’ve been saying, it might not be the perfect game, but it’s the right one for me.

I haven’t felt my financial belt tighten this hard since July of 2021.

A little known fact about me is that I haven’t held a job since then. Severance ran out. Unemployment ran out. The Universe eventually came through me and poured prosperity out onto my family with a little help from the federal government. At the end of next month, that might come to a screaming halt after my visit to the state appointed headshrinker. Then, who knows? I might be back to square one.

I’m happy and grateful to have been blessed with the abundance to keep my family afloat the last couple of years, but we knew the judge was going to call my case up for review. I’m not holding my breath knowing our state and federal government the way I do. I was an old guy nobody wanted to hire back in the late summer of 2021. Literally nothing has changed on that front. I’m not sure how “they” think that will have somehow mysteriously improved.

As a family we brace for the inflation caused by all of this tariff nonsense. I’ve never wanted to leave the United States more than I have the last couple of months, and the farthest I’ve ever travelled from home is Disney World. Everyday the mainstream news just seems to get a little more negative and some people seem just a little more toxic than the day before. I’ve said many times now, this TTRPG hobby is such a welcome escape from reality.

The downer is we have to still deal with real reality after the game ends and everyone goes home. I can design a fantasy world where there’s no conflicts, challenges, or strife, but where would be the fun in that. Instead, I think it’s important to take the lessons we learn about comradery, teamwork, and conflict resolution into the real world with us and apply them to make a brighter real world.

Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate you. Keep it real, but please strive for positivity, too. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy in your life.

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.