I'm Tired of the Way We do the 30 Day RPG Challenges Every Year.

So the current fad going through my role-playing social media accounts is this year's version of the 30 Day RPG Challenge and while I know the people who made it worked hard on creating something fun, I'm just not feeling these sorts of things anymore. I don't want a challenge that feels more like a survey to get to know me and my role-playing history. That doesn't feel challenging these days.

Instead I want something that would require me to think about my answers and that would force me to test my abilities as a Game Master and player. I want questions like, You must create an encounter that will challenge your players critical thinking skills and that incorporates the following elements: a sprung trap, a kobold, and an iron statue of your choosing. 

That's the sort of thing that I want to see!

I want to see a challenge that makes me excited to attempt it and that makes me curious to see how others solve the situation. I want to see people like +Kelvin Green, +Douglas Cole, +Mark Van Vlack, +Jens D., and +Chirine ba Kal come at a problem from each their unique perspectives. I want to see +Chris Tamm and +Arnold K. take the challenge in directions that no one else saw it going. I want to see the community doing something interesting that gets all of us moving in a creative direction and not just getting to know each other like we do every year with these sorts of challenges.

You know what?

I need to stop complaining and start working on doing this. If you want to help jump in. Lord knows I could use it.

Tagless and Purposeless.

I've been looking over the way that I tag my blog now, as compared to when I started, and I have to say that I wish I had been more thorough when I first started. Like now when I begin posting an article my goal is to make it easily index-able for myself so that I can find the things that I've talked about in the past without having to wonder if I'm treading over the same ground that I've passed before. I mean, fuck, I've been writing this blog now for four years and in that time I've written over a thousand posts. And don't get me wrong; I've talked a lot of shit in those thousand posts, but it would be nice to know what I've said in the past without trying to remember what I said four years ago. 

Ah, fuck it. 

I'll fix that some day when I've got time and nothing else to do. #NeverBitch

Pushing Past 500,000 and Digging in for the Long Haul!

Earlier this week I broke a new milestone that I never thought I would reach: 500,000 page views!

I knew that I was heading towards this number earlier in September but the new job has kind of occupied all of my attention and I wasn't watching the blog as closely as I have in the past. Kids, this is way cool! Thank you to everyone who has published a link to me, shared a post of mine in your social circles, your facebooks, and your tweets. I couldn't have done so well without all of your support! 

Now I have to come up with something for the 750,000 mark to celebrate! Maybe a give away?

1d10 Reasons You Should Have Done Something Else . . . Like Drink. A Lot.

Last night I got an e-mail about a series that I have been slowly making my way through. The e-mailer was attempting to explain to me that I'm wasting my time by doing things in a different way. "Of course you could figure out what's in each of those kits," she wrote, "but really a dice roll is all that's needed. You should really just stop."

In honor of this e-mail I decided to create a list with all the things that I should be doing instead of what I'm actually doing. You're welcome to use it yourself whenever you feel the urge to do something and there might be something else worth doing instead.

1d10 Things You Should Have Done Instead

1 You should have finished that other series that you've been working on instead of the one you're working on now because I totally liked it better and this one blows donkey dicks on the side of the road for gas money. 

2 You should have just rolled dice for the answer instead because the game should only be played as it was written - and by game I mean Dungeons & Dragons; by which I mean Basic Dungeons & Dragons; which, as everyone knows, means Moldvay Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

3 Instead of talking about what's wrong with it you should have come up with a solution to the problem that isn't the one you wrote about because I don't like the way you write about rules in games that involve Dragons or transgendered princesses who are actually the villains because that's totally a bullshit move designed to play into the stereotypes of transgendered fantasy princesses that we've all seen a million times before and that effectively disenfranchises them from the wider fantasy community.

4 You should stop attempting to change the game from what the game designers wrote and instead should begin contemplating what they actually meant when they wrote, "You have mastered the art of defense in combat . . ." (Collins 1:100).

5 You should stop focusing on the inaccuracies in that article and instead should focus on the fact that when you kill imaginary creatures that you're actually acting out your racial hatred for the Other. Haven't you ever been to the South? Have you never seen racists?

6 Instead of writing that bit of flash fiction you should have been busy writing about the state of alignments in modern role-playing games as opposed to the traditional view of such things in an essay that includes quotes from the more popular role-playing enthusiasts without questioning or arguing with their logic no matter your own opinions. 

7 You should stop doing cross blog projects with other bloggers that you like and respect and instead should focus on doing this other cross blog project with bloggers that you don't know because of your vast / inconsequential popularity.

8 Instead of putting out three blog posts on the same day, each with word counts over 1,500, you should focus on a single blog post a week that is no longer than 400 words that doesn't use adjectives or nouns.

9 You should have read this book that I read but you haven't yet because it totally means that until you do that anything you have to say on the subject isn't valid or meaningful to the conversation. Never mind that you're the one who initiated it and that has been investigating it by using primary documents - this book written by someone who likes to drink gin and mercury cocktails and hasn't read any of the original documents or even knew anyone involved says that you're full of shit.

10 You should have replied to our e-mail as your lottery winnings in the Irish Lottery, of which there is a substantial sum, cannot be paid out until such time as you have replied to our letters with your e-mail, social security number, bank account number and passwords, the name of your first pet, and your mother's maiden name. This is an urgent matter that you must attend to immediately or else we will be forced to send you yet another e-mail regarding this lottery that you did not buy a ticket for and which does not actually exist. 

New Avatar

I thought it might be a good idea to let all of you know that I've changed my avatar from the bear reading a book to what I actually look like - well, what I looked like 10 pounds heavier than today as I've lost that much since then. Anyway, I don't want anyone to get all weirded out by the new avatar so here it is:

I use the same picture for Twitter because I think it's incredibly funny when I'm giving +Kevin Smith shit for him to be laughing in his avatar while I'm looking up at him. This is what happens when I have too much time on my hands kids. This is what happens.

Working on the Look of the Blog

In my disgust today I decided to go through and begin working on the look of the blog as it was entirely possible that part of my problem may have been either of the html edits that I did to add the Amazon Wishlist and the Twitter feed. Unfortunately I discovered that this meant that my direct subscribers - the people who do so through their blogs - are gone. I can't find a way to bring any of you back to the front page and I'm so dreadfully sorry that I fucked that up. I liked having you guys there and while I can add the people from Google Plus it won't let me add you guys anymore. 

So that sucks. 

Anyway, as you may have noticed the blog is going through a bit of a facelift. I'm tired of the old look and I thought that this one might actually be a bit more useful to everyone reading me. Let me know what you think as I'm still tinkering with it for the next few days. Oh, and if there's something missing that you really liked please, please, please let me know so I can see about bringing it back online. 

Okay, more later.

So It Begins (Updated 9/24/2014)

Let me tell you a story. 

In the beginning there were people who didn't like doing things the way that they had been told they were to be done. These men gathered in their basements for games with miniature figurines to reenact the great battles of history while smoking cigars and drinking beer. Their wives, fine and patient women, went about their lives ignoring that fact that their husbands were vehemently arguing about battles that had been decided hundreds of years ago and instead drank lots of wine and wondered what it would be like to leave their husbands and join a nice art community in the Southwest.

As time went on these men in the basement found that playing out battles that had already been decided was a boring enterprise. Instead it was time that they began to make up their own armies that waged war against one and another. Rules were written and published. Of course since these men were not the sort to do things exactly as they were told things began to change. The battles went from being the big, sprawling affairs where a player controlled dozens of figurines to a single figurine exploring the wider world on their own. In that way Dungeons and Dragons was born.

Now as the years progressed the game went through multiple iterations with an ever increasing crop of players who often clung to their favorite version of the game - some even going so far as to proclaim that they had found the one, true way to play. This blog isn't for those people.

This blog is for me to get out all the thoughts that have been bouncing about my head for the last ten years without driving my wife completely crazy. It's more than that, though. This blog is a place for me to stretch my creative muscles as I attempt to become better at everything I do in my life. So you can expect to find short stories (poems when you're unlucky) cropping up every so often, my thoughts on how to play role-playing games, and lots more as you work your way through the ever expanding archive. I've got a lot of projects that I want to attempt over the coming months and years and I hope that you can enjoy more of them than not.

More later.