(and maybe you should, too.)

In light of recent events, I’ve decided to do a little soul searching. Feel free to come along for the ride. There’s a lot going on here. Sometimes I wonder about my life decisions. I am certifiably batshit crazy on top of chronic pain. This should be interesting.

Here’s some of the what and then we’ll talk why.

I love all things TTRPG. That’s been evident for a long time now. Let’s look at specific games and maybe just some general aspects of tabletop roleplaying.

  • Dragonbane.
  • Shadowdark.
  • Twilight Sword.
  • Ruttigers Almanac (upcoming.)
  • Star Wars RPG (D6)
  • Old School Essentials
  • ICONS Superhero Roleplaying
  • Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying (T$R)
  • DC Superheroes RPG (Mayfair)
  • Outgunned/Outgunned Superheroes.
  • Giant Freakin Robots!
  • Game Master advice.
  • Worldbuilding.
  • Blogging about all the above.
  • Games with open game licenses.
  • Occasionally making friends through the hobby.
  • Going to game conventions.
  • Talking about TTRPGs to an audience.
  • TTRPG YouTube aka “DungeonTube.”
  • Industry talk and sometimes gossip.
  • Dice
  • Merchandise (Dice Bags, Dice Scrolls, Dice Trays, Battle Maps, Minis, etc.)
  • Character Sheet Design.
  • Publishing on DriveThruRPG.
  • Endless ideas about campaigns, worlds, settings, NPCs, and so on.
  • Coming up with voices and character archetypes for NPCs.
  • Game planning/prep.
  • Reviewing cool TTRPGs.
  • Watching TTRPG crowdfunding success on projects I backed.
  • Friendly Local Game Stores (I’ve worked in three of them.)
  • Crunching numbers and setting up characters.
  • Creating monsters.
  • Creating cool AI generated images for various projects.

Some general talk about why I love some of these things so much:
I listed several specific games. Each has its own merits, and some have far more positives than negatives. ICONS is my go-to supers game because of its simplicity, and it reminds me of MSHRP and DC. I also lump OG GM’s Superheroes for Shadowdark, Outgunned Superheroes, and generic supers gaming in with that. I love running supers games.

Of course Dragonbane has to be at the top of the list. It has become my definitive fantasy TTRPG. I’ve published a few minor things under the Dragonbane license with more to come. It’s everything I ever wanted from that other d20 fantasy game without all the headaches. Oh, and I was into Shadowdark before it became cool, but then Dragonbane happened and I’ve never once looked back.

Twilight Sword and TTJRPGs are a newer arrival on the scene. I love Fabula Ultima and Gates of Krystalia, too. I also love anime, manga, and 8 Bit Final Fantasy turn based games. I’m going to be doing some things based on the CAT (Created At Twilight) system as soon as the license become available.

I love any game with an open license. I love that feeling of being able to create something cool and then share it with the world. I have all this cool stuff from years of various games and adventures that I can bring around for just about any genre if I choose to do so. That’s also assuming I don’t tap into the well of new and upcoming ideas running around in my head all the time. Not a day goes by when I don’t look at something or sit up in the middle of the night with a cool idea for a campaign, a monster, an item, a spell, a character or whatever. You should see my project list.

That was my only lament about Star Wars RPG, which I spent so many hours writing adventures, creating characters, building ships, making up planetary locations, and just living in that universe. Unfortunately my hopes were crushed when I went to Gen Con and found out from West End Games writers that they didn’t even have free reign to create for Star Wars because everything had to go through Lucasfilm. Then Hasbro and Disney happened… But I still love everything from Episodes 1-6 of the saga, including a lot of the animated stuff.

DriveThruRPG as been my favorite website in the whole world for about 17 years now.

It used to be EN World and before that Roleplaying Tips. A friend of mine who liked ICONS and who I met through running Star Wars introduced me to it. IIRC it was because ICONS or maybe an older version of Marvel (Cortex.)  It’s all a little fuzzy due to the passage of time, to be honest.

I’ve had the publishing itch since before PDFs were ever a thing. Heck, before the Internet was much of a thing. So… since 1991 or thereabouts. I think I’ve wanted to be Gary Gygax for about as long as I’ve been gaming. That’s fair to say.

Since the original d20 Open Game License I’ve wanted to get something going. ADHD sucks because so many ideas, so many half or quarter finished products. Kinda like these days, but I’m getting more focused and licenses have gotten easier to deal with. Dragonbane’s OGL has been a Godsend that way.

We’ve got a little progress going over there. My huge project list for 2026 has gotten chopped down to three items out of I-forget-how-many. We have campaign and supplement ideas to last a good decade if I had to guess. Again, it all looks so cool in my head when I come up with it.

Why I got into YouTube.

I love talking about gaming. I’m on here writing about it, sure. But in person? I can go on for hours. Someone once accused me and a friend of communicating in Binary because we would chatter back and forth about Star Wars RPG nonstop for hours when we got together. I’ve also stayed up all night having discussions about NPCs in my Werewolf: the Apocalypse game, Deadlands, and Dungeons & Dragons. Heck, I had a couple of friends who would go for coffee in the wee hours of the morning and just talk games. I’ve had girlfriends and wives bail out of conversations because I just wouldn’t stop talking about some TTRPG topic. YouTube was a natural outlet for that, especially discussing the industry stuff. (It takes a rare tabletop game nerd to really dig into TTRPG company drama.)

I’m a YouTube connoisseur. It’s on constantly all day every day in some capacity. Even when I’m asleep I listen to ASMR all night. I have subliminal affirmations on when I’m working or playing video games. I listen to OG GM and a few other content creators while I’m cooking or folding laundry. I listen to tarot readings, psychics, Law of Attraction, skeptics, and other things in between and while driving. I take a break from all of that and watch movies or horror channels at night sometimes.

When I went to start the channel, I did tons of research. I’ve watched enough How-To-YouTube content to probably give a damn Ted Talk on the subject. That and Law of Attraction. I’ve listened to hours of YouTube gurus such as Brian G Johnson, Kevin Kolbe, Think Media, VidIQ, and so on. So why is my channel stuck where it is? Good question.

Back in my day (run kids, run) we used to go to conventions and game stores to have hour-long talks about games and how we approach them as Game Masters or writers. It’s where world building became a topic of conversation long before Bob or Ginny came around. It’s how we discussed GM tips and tricks outside of forums and magazine articles I think Professor DM probably remembers those days because a lot of his earlier stuff definitely had that air to it. I guess these people speak at conventions now.

That’s where we’re going to leave it for today. There will be a deep dive into what I consider to be the negative side of the hobby coming soon. Thank you for being here if you made it this far.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!