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Tangent #7: The Shape of Our Gaming
63 Plays4 days ago
This week, we talk about our personal gaming evolutions. From the very beginnings when we first started, what we learned and how it screwed us up. Then we move to our "adolescence" and into "maturity. The idea is to take stock of how we became the gamers we are, what we've gotten out of it, and what we're still hoping to explore. Join our discord and share your stories with us!
Our Discord: https://discord.gg/2skmrtYyZU
Han Cluster Sci Fi RPG: https://hancluster.com
Resting Glitch Face: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ijwk9DT8ulqO8RVyrawhN
Bite Size Tales: https://sites.libsyn.com/436095/site
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Transcript
Introduction to Tabletop Tangents
00:00:03
Speaker
me get my head right. That's what she said. I was just about to say it. Yeah, you didn't. Technically it's that it would be, that's what he said.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hello friends. Welcome to Tabletop Tangents, a podcast about running tabletop RPGs, writing stories, and the sometimes meandering paths we take in pursuit of creativity and inspiration.
Evolution and Sharing of Gaming Stories
00:00:34
Speaker
Tangent number seven, the shape of our gaming.
00:00:41
Speaker
Welcome back everybody. We're here, Tabletop Tangents, with Tangents galore today, I imagine. And we thought that we would talk about the evolution of our gaming experience. And and as as as as we move through that, maybe that will bring up memories for you and discussion topics that you can bring up in the Discord and stuff like that. That's what we were thinking.
00:01:10
Speaker
Yes, that is exactly ah one of the motivations behind this topic suggestion, because I very much... ah There used to be the old joke, um the whole, like, let me tell you about my character, you know? Like, the I don't want to hear about those things. Nobody cares about your character, man. Exactly, exactly. Nobody does. Nobody does. So just stop. But...
00:01:32
Speaker
what we do What I do care about is hearing about the the unique stories and things that happened over the course or things that became ah lessons learned. you know I think that stuff, personally, is quite interesting and quite entertaining.
00:01:48
Speaker
And that is, I do want to hear about that. And you know what? Actually, I've never... I've never really minded hearing character stories. Me neither. neither. I think it's kind of fun. i think i think it's i think it's one of those it's one of those gamer stereotypes, you know, that's not...
00:02:07
Speaker
I mean, if we're friends, especially like, of course, i want to hear like your experience and all that. And I'll, I'll frode with questions that you might not otherwise get.
Structuring the Podcast on Gaming
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. you know yeah I think it's, I think it's fun. man i think, I think it, it, it allows you to learn also a little bit about that person.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yes, exactly. So that's nice. All right. So how do we want how do we want to structure this? We have a lovely outline before us, Tracy. So how are we going to do this? Yes, you're about to say something. I've been about to say something.
00:02:36
Speaker
For the minutes. Yeah, Chris keeps rambling on. Oh, well. i was going to try and cut in really quick before we moved away from the title.
00:02:47
Speaker
And i was going to say that the shape of my gaming is, i think, a triangle. i was going to say gangly.
00:03:00
Speaker
See, this is the kind of stuff that Chris does in the game that he wants a Benny for. and I'm like, I hate that stuff. He wants a Benny. I know.
00:03:14
Speaker
So I'm fighting against myself. A Tracy against itself. No, you are you are right to not reward me for for that behavior because all it does is just encourage. That's right.
Early Gaming Experiences and Lessons
00:03:24
Speaker
It encourages me.
00:03:26
Speaker
That can be disruptive. And even I recognize that it can be disruptive. And there's many times when I actually do not say the thing.
00:03:37
Speaker
It difficult. It is difficult. But, you know, just like the wicked joke, I couldn't not say that the other day. That amazing. so It was not amazing. Just trust me, Elise. was the only one that got it, which should tell you something.
00:03:54
Speaker
What was amazing was the fact that that the majority of the people who were there for movie night did not get the joke. And that and honestly, that that warmed my heart inside.
00:04:07
Speaker
so Great. um anyway Congratulations. Well, thank you. Yes, let's let's let's ah let's actually talk about early gaming experiences, shall we? So the whole idea here is ah starting with our early gaming and transitioning into our adolescence. And by adolescence, I mean not that we were worse then, but more that compared to where we are now, compared to to how we've evolved, not necessarily for better or worse, or but maybe we talk about for better or worse, you know because it's it's not for us to judge somebody else. It's for us to judge ourselves.
00:04:42
Speaker
But the idea being, let's talk about our earliest gaming experiences first and what that showed us or what ah kind of trends that created in us with with our gaming life moving forward from there. So Chris, you started this whole thing. So go ahead. All right. That's I will be the so the the the and I really do like your outline. So I kind of want to try and follow this as much as possible with minim minimal tangents like what started this show, for example.
00:05:12
Speaker
um The two questions, what for early gaming experiences, what did what what do we take away from it? And what about it screwed us up? I think. and this may seem like a cop-out answer, I think for me, obviously, what I took away from it was obviously the sheer enjoyment that was there. And I think...
00:05:34
Speaker
um I also a real beneficial takeaway ah because I, so you know, I started my gaming with, with Redbox D&D, but I think the, the scope of what was possible in, with role-playing games.
00:05:54
Speaker
that was one of the the the more beneficial things that I took away from it. And I guess what I mean by that is, yes, you could, of course, do dungeon crawls and things of that nature, but it didn't take long before there was just more that was happening.
00:06:13
Speaker
You know, like there was a wider world that could be explored and me and my early group went ahead and did that. you know, the the the making of the maps and plotting certain things out and going and conducting and conducting adventures in those areas or taking the pre-written modules and seeing how we could shoehorn them into whatever type of world we were creating. um And so that idea of...
00:06:45
Speaker
I don't know if proto storytelling is the best way to describe that because we were really, I mean, we were kind of telling our own stories using someone else's story. to do that. But just the for me, the biggest, I think the biggest fun takeaway was, was the scope of it.
00:07:02
Speaker
Um, I think what screwed me up with it was i didn't realize, i didn't realize like the real micro level of what could be going on there. I think I had glimmers of it as an early gamer, but I didn't fully understand that.
00:07:20
Speaker
And so focusing more on the bigger picture in the world and the things that my character was doing and the wealth that my character could acquire, the status of the reputation or whatever.
00:07:30
Speaker
um That was a thing, but like, like an actual like story path. of this character, like, and even a backstory. ah Character arc kind of thing. Yeah, character character arcs non-existent.
00:07:46
Speaker
Non-existent in my early days of gaming. Just the the character the character arc was ah level advancement. and and the the acquisition of additional power or wealth or whatever. There was no, like as far as like a personal development or anything like that, um that did not happen for me at all. and ah and it And it stayed that way, actually, for quite some time for for me. I didn't... i don't And I've said this before in other discussions, and that this is still true to a certain point today.
00:08:22
Speaker
there i have not had, as a player, i have not had a fully satisfied ah character arc experience. Now, part of that is because prefer to i prefer to to gm So i'm I'm just, I'm not as a player, I'm just not there very often. I've had plenty of very satisfying GM arc experiences and stories told and all that.
00:08:47
Speaker
But from a player's standpoint, um absolutely not. And I think some of that foundation was was laid early on for me. I just, that that that micro level of of of gaming and character related stuff just wasn't there.
00:09:04
Speaker
Well, challenge accepted, by the way. And um because you're in a game that has that potential. Yes. And that's why that's why that's why I said you know fully. And i'm I'm kind of really looking forward to... This is, by the way, this is probably the fourth or fifth character that I can remember that has been Names and I. So I am very much looking forward. Who has also been a monk, by the way. um I'm looking forward to seeing that arc fully realized with him. Well, I'll try do my best to help. what How old were you when this was happening?
00:09:39
Speaker
ah This was definitely teen and twenty s for sure. Teen and 20s. Yeah, yeah. I don't think it was. i don't think I really got... I didn't have my first fully successful campaign as a GM.
00:09:53
Speaker
um It's certainly the first one that I completed, um i think, until... 2000
Influence of Social Circles and Family in Gaming
00:10:01
Speaker
2001 yeah that familiar so i went a good 25 years um that happening okay okay dot my earliest gaming experience is this with your dad Yeah, I would say it was with Pops. um ah But not as a player, which is a fun little spin.
00:10:28
Speaker
Because my first experience with gaming was him and his friends, who are like my pseudo aunt and uncle, um them all playing together. um And I think I was like...
00:10:48
Speaker
five, six years old. And it would be, you know, a Friday night. He would take me over to their house. They would all, you know, sit in their living room and I would sit on the floor with them for a little while. And for me, it was story time before bed.
00:11:09
Speaker
That was, that was my experience. I, I got to watch, like formative adult relationships happening while also getting the imaginative play experience.
00:11:25
Speaker
And i like, there are stories that my dad will tell to this day that he's like, yep. And you were sitting right on my lap when this happened and dah, dah, dah. And, and it's just,
00:11:37
Speaker
It's very wholesome. It's very sweet. But it absolutely established that there was at at no doubt in my life I was going to end up a tabletop RPG player. it was at And, you know, by extension, hopefully eventually even more so than now, a GM. Like that's... There was no doubt. It it had to happen.
00:12:03
Speaker
um I assume you started playing at some point. I So ah first. First time, like rolling up a character and playing with my dad, um it was he was obviously running. And then i was a couple of friends from school and, you know, he wanted us to have like the authentic experience.
00:12:30
Speaker
Um, ah so, you know, we had a, a, an unfinished basement and we had some, a table down, like an, an extra table that was down in the basement and mismatched chairs. And he even went to the point of like having two different, like standing lamps that were turned on instead of having like the big overhead lights from like the basement. Mm-hmm.
00:12:54
Speaker
Um, so very, very ambiance, very, you know, got to have the right atmosphere. And yeah, he ran a D and D campaign for us for couple of years. Um, yeah.
00:13:09
Speaker
And then, you know, as a teenager, you get busy priorities change and, you know, other life shit happened. So, Oh, Nope. There it is.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yep. I said the first one again, dang it. Yep. I was close before, but I censored myself. I'm really bad at it. I'm out of practice.
00:13:33
Speaker
Anyways. um Yeah. So then that turned into, I started working and I met people through work that, um,
00:13:47
Speaker
Eventually introduced me to my core gaming group from several years ago. i i i was i joined the gamers table crew. um i was i was invited to play at and in one of their games and I didn't know what that was going i I had no idea what that was going to open up. I had no idea when Shannon asked me to come and play ah at Monday Night Game what that even meant.
00:14:15
Speaker
And now it's 10, 11 years later. and Here you are doing a podcast. yeah Here I am doing a podcast. ah it's It's wild, but it's good.
00:14:31
Speaker
And i've I've enjoyed every bit of it on the way. I think... What about it screwed me up? um Definitely my sleep schedule, like I said earlier.
00:14:43
Speaker
ah But like i want to say like my perception. Because i'm I'm in these spaces where I'm so easily welcomed And there there are people that are just inviting and you want to always feel included and everybody else wants everyone to feel included. Or at least that's the experience that I've had. I know that that may not be shared, but that's the experience that I've had.
00:15:15
Speaker
And there are a lot of social circles that I have towed into that are not like that at all. So i I come into these instances where I'm like, okay, this is who I am. This is exactly how I behave.
00:15:33
Speaker
And it's a turnoff to some people. But anytime I have been introduced to a new gaming space... that that has not happened there has not i have not had the experience where it was like okay this chick is really weird like we need to subtly get rid of her it it like i've always just been met with kindness and you know just genuine friendship he yeah
00:16:04
Speaker
Well, okay. So I, let's see, my first experience with it was when I was 10, maybe 8, when I had a friend named Michael who was into RPGs, but he was not really into D&D. So i never I didn't really start with D&D. I got the Redbox later, but he was into everything else like Bushido and stuff like that. But the thing is, it was only the two of us.
00:16:38
Speaker
And, uh, he really introduced me to Tunnels and Trolls, which ended up me, you know, that was a whole thing, but, um, but it was just the two of us. So he
Shift from Combat to Character-Driven Narratives
00:16:49
Speaker
would always run quote unquote, but, um, it was duet gaming when we were, you know, 10 years old.
00:16:58
Speaker
So, And it blew my mind because i was i was able to read these fantastic stories and like like Chris says, it opened my mind to the possibilities of what this could be.
00:17:13
Speaker
But I wasn't mature enough or smart enough at that point to really exploit it in the way that it could have been exploited. That was while I was homeschooling. ah There's a whole other story there. I homeschooled for like three years when I was in grade school in the first year of middle school or so. And then I knew Daryl from like first grade.
00:17:38
Speaker
We weren't playing then. But when I went back to middle school after homeschooling a while, I caught up with Daryl again. And he was playing at that point. He wasn't playing D&D.
00:17:50
Speaker
he was playing Champions. And Champions is probably the most formatively influencing thing in my early gaming career because... We played it a lot. We would you know have these eight hour long weekend sessions where we'd have these four hour combats because that's how champions rules and then have another four hour combat because we weren't so much with the between combats thing.
00:18:15
Speaker
I wanted to do the between combats thing. This is what I was, this is this has been me forever. From the very beginning, i was ahead of the time in the sense that I wanted stuff like dramatic tasks. I wanted stuff like social conflicts in the games, but none of the games had those things.
00:18:35
Speaker
I mean, none of the ones that I was playing anyway. They just didn't have mechanics for that. And so the de gaming technology hadn't advanced enough for for me to be able to get what I wanted out of it, which was character development in a way that was guided, in a way that... that allowed randomization to happen while at the same time me giving giving me agency to guide it.
00:18:59
Speaker
So any character development in those early days were a negotiation between the GM and the player because there was no mechanics to... officiate any of that. And most of the time people just ignore it, especially when you were younger.
00:19:13
Speaker
You know, he let's just get on with the next fight or let's get onto the next dungeon room or whatever it is. And I was less interested in dungeon rooms. I was more interested in the alter ego ah personalities of the heroes that I was playing in champions. Right.
00:19:29
Speaker
We had one or two people who would ah try to role play some of that stuff. And it was okay. It was good. It was fine. I had my little fix there, but it didn't I didn't get it really until later, until my adolescent phase, which we're going to move into. So I was very much from the beginning, very interested in character. I've always been very interested in character.
00:19:56
Speaker
And it was hard to explore character outside, at least in game. and i And I really didn't play until I got into the champions mode. Like we played some duet-y stuff, but not not a whole lot. I did solo adventures with TNT.
00:20:12
Speaker
Anyway, what i think screwed me up about it
00:20:19
Speaker
I think because I had such strong, i' I'm not blaming anybody. This is my issue because I am very deferential um or have been, at least when I was younger. it it took me training myself out of that to not be deferential.
00:20:37
Speaker
um you know Going to college and speaking in front of people, learning how to sing in front of thousands of people, that'll train you out of being scared of the limelight.
00:20:48
Speaker
And um it was invaluable, right? But I didn't have that back then. And I had powerful, strong people around me who were very much interested in sort of taking over, right? So Michael was happy to take over.
00:21:04
Speaker
Daryl is happy to take over. I mean, he is a very strong personality and I love him for it. But um because of that, I never really stepped forward into the GM's chair until 2013.
00:21:16
Speaker
two thousand and thirteen for For real. So I feel like, oh, I guess I i just, if if anything screwed me up, it was that, that I didn't that i didn't really run a group until much, much later.
00:21:33
Speaker
So that's that's my early gaming experience for better or worse. So the idea here then is moving into our gaming adolescence, right? What did we take from our early game experience and how did we move forward to that?
00:21:50
Speaker
And before we before we sort of evolved into what we are now. I think the biggest thing for me was the realization about that a cohesive start to finish story could be told.
00:22:04
Speaker
And embraced the idea of character backgrounds ah from my players. And then the vast majority of which I probably ignored.
00:22:16
Speaker
um because i was focused on i was focused on telling the certain type of story that I wanted. And if there were interesting aspects in the character...
00:22:28
Speaker
backstory then i would try to incorporate some of that um it wasn't again it wasn't until that that one successful campaign or that i completed that i did incorporate backgrounds uh character character backgrounds intimately into the story um and figured out a way to integrate it into the plot that i wanted to tell um Prior to that, i just I liked to do interesting things with the PCs and have interesting interactions with them.
00:23:00
Speaker
um But i needed that my ability to pay attention maybe to what they wanted was probably a little stunted. And um and that just began to so that just sort of had its own slow evolution. Yeah.
00:23:15
Speaker
as As time went on and I realized I'm getting good information here in these backstories, I should probably take advantage of that and and use that and realize that what I'm necessarily telling is it the be all end all of of the story that probably needs to be told with this campaign. Yeah.
Growth as Players and GMs
00:23:36
Speaker
And it did. It did evolve, you know, over time um to the point where i i feel like there is a high a fairly decent hybrid of that now. I do have a story that I may want to tell, but the the pendulum of letting the characters' backstories influence that, the direction of that story, has there's more prominence there than than than what I'm necessarily looking for.
00:24:03
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And I think that you know that was that probably took another good 10, 15 years, really, with how that came about. i mean, there's another aspect too, but I think that that gets more towards my maturity aspect, which where we're you know where we're eventually heading towards.
00:24:22
Speaker
e God? See, that this is interesting because... I mean, ah the the both of you have obviously more tenured experience than me.
00:24:39
Speaker
um I think I'm only just now coming out of my adolescence in gaming.
00:24:50
Speaker
Well, maybe not like... Right this second. But I feel... At this very moment. At this very moment. I feel like things that I have done and experienced, like I'm going to say over the past five years, have really shaped me coming out of adolescence and into maturity.
00:25:17
Speaker
Because...
00:25:21
Speaker
Before I started RGF, and even during like the beginning of um RGF, i I didn't give it the weight that it deserved.
00:25:35
Speaker
It was Monday Night Game for me. For the longest. like we were We were getting a following of listeners for Resting Glitch Face, and that was really cool. It felt really impressive, but it was still...
00:25:50
Speaker
Monday night game with Mike's interface. Right. And i think it was probably gaming with Gage and friends that really made me feel like, oh, no, this is...
00:26:09
Speaker
This is more. This is more to me. And i think within that time span, like all of the other projects that I have been invited to and have worked on and all of the people in the tabletop gaming space that I have been introduced to and, you know, the friendships that I've created looking at you two.
00:26:33
Speaker
yeah.
00:26:35
Speaker
I think that that has been where I've experienced the most growth. I went
Impact of Technology on Gaming
00:26:43
Speaker
from, oh I'm never going to GM. i have too many examples of my quote unquote perfect GM experience that I know that I would never be able to measure up to to getting the experience of different GMs outside of my normal circle.
00:27:05
Speaker
And then being like, oh, well, they're kind of a ding dong. So yeah, I could do that. And
00:27:11
Speaker
okay um then also just like the things that I did Being on a live Twitch stream and having to play a character, that's really flipping hard. Especially when the game itself is like open world sandbox. Yeah.
00:27:32
Speaker
it was That was tough. And i think that experience on its own was a whole different different level of maturing. This is where I think that you...
00:27:49
Speaker
quote unquote you and i guess maybe people of of a younger age who are into gaming and are kind of on that same track have uh it's not even an advantage but we'll call it an advantage comparatively to people who are older and gamers you know i was sitting here talking about the fact that oh yeah i behaved this way for like 10 to 15 years and tracy you kind of said the same thing and this is just kind of what we did and You know, until until we, you know, just allowed technology to catch up with stuff. But the amount of things that you have been able to do and experience in that short amount of time really is pretty cool because of the fact that those opportunities exist in the first place.
00:28:34
Speaker
You know, when it comes to streaming shows, um that are available as opportunities, ah just random assortment of dozens of YouTube advice videos, RPG podcasts, you you know, where they discuss um advice in dealing with certain topics and all that kind of stuff. None of that stuff existed really prior to 96 and very little of it existed after 96.
00:29:00
Speaker
And it's, it it truly is this, just this absolute wealth of information, both good and bad that is out there. And you, there's no way you're ever going to be able to consume it all, but you can take advantage of so much of it. And I think that that's,
00:29:18
Speaker
ah Fantastic. Yeah, there is so much out there. And and the the good part of the internet is is that collective knowledge and um easy access to it.
00:29:32
Speaker
And like I said, it's not just the technology of you know computers and all that. It's the technology of gaming itself, which is Let's incorporate dramatic tasks. let's Let's have some kind of mechanic where we're not fighting, but we're trying to do something hard.
00:29:51
Speaker
And now we've got rules that can sort of adjudicate this and randomize it a little bit while also keeping to a narrative that we're trying to tell. And so that was my adolescence, is being introduced to those things, finally, the things that I wanted when I was younger that didn't exist.
00:30:10
Speaker
And um so I went off after high school. I ran a short mini campaign, which really is the predecessor of Han Cluster, but I never finished it because I graduated and then I went to college right away. and college was a black hole of, you know, me being in college. It was it was I was I was trying to find myself. And then when I got into theater, there was no time for anything.
00:30:38
Speaker
And so I got my theater degree, finished that, and then I was back into a regular job type of situation. And I finally moved back to Tucson and suddenly Daryl was on Facebook and reached out.
00:30:54
Speaker
He just reached out. And all of a sudden, I'm back at Daryl's table and we're playing champions again. And so it was like i picked up where I left off. and But Daryl had leveled up massively in that time. He'd published his own game by that point. He was working on another game. And he was still working a private job, like a regular job. He was not working in the industry yet. But he was doing his thing.
00:31:22
Speaker
And um so he taught me tons in in that time and introduced me to several different games, not just Champions, but we moved into like Fate and we played some of the Edge of the Empire stuff and we played...
00:31:38
Speaker
you know, a
Mature Gaming and Designing Experiences
00:31:39
Speaker
bunch of different things, Apocalypse World and and Variance, you know, Monster Heart, stuff like that. And so I got introduced to what's the new technology of gaming? And then Savage Worlds came along. And of course, Daryl already knew it, but he hadn't really pushed it on me until a certain point. And then, like I've said before, i kind of bounced off at first, but then I got it and eventually met Shane and all this stuff. So that was my adolescence.
00:32:08
Speaker
And so I really, it was really heartening to me that, okay, the the technology of gaming has caught up to what I wanted gaming to be when I was younger. And I could explore character arcs and I could find a way to tell compelling stories within some sort of structure that allowed us to tell those stories together without pure negotiation at the table.
00:32:32
Speaker
um So I think that that's where that's where i i matured. There was one thing, oh, I want to say – The maturity started like when I was starting to design my own stuff, when I was really starting to run games at cons, that's that's the beginning of my maturity phase.
00:32:54
Speaker
But leveling up, GMing was all part of the adolescence phase where I was like, okay, I suck at this. This is very stressful. i don't know what I'm doing. i I feel like this is hella awkward. All those feelings that you have when you're trying to learn how to GM and all that stuff.
00:33:13
Speaker
Dodd mentioned streaming. Streaming was, ah there's nothing quite like jamming live stream. And i did it. I loved it. I would do it again, absolutely. But I know how to prepare for it. And i was lucky that I had already matured enough to be there before I did it.
00:33:34
Speaker
Whereas if I tried it before that, it could have been really awful and really stressful. But i I leveled up to that point. And I was like, once I did it, I was like, oh, this is, I've heard horror stories about this, right? I've heard people going, oh, live stream. It's so hard because you've got to be on all the time. You've got to watch your language. You've got to be careful about what the, you know, what what kind of topics you're representing and all this stuff. The stuff I was like, o but I was like, I did it. And it was, I, you know, I navigated all that, but partly because I had already, I'd already leveled up to that point.
00:34:12
Speaker
Right. So that was my adolescence. And, uh, I learned at a GM really doing that. Uh, Daryl was there to help me. A lot of people were there to help me. And, um,
00:34:25
Speaker
I had already, i already had a penchant for it anyway, because I was writing stories. All those years when I wasn't gaming, i was writing. And so that helped also because I, character development, all those things that you, that I wanted, i explored through writing first. And then when I got to gaming, I could do it. I could translate it to that.
00:34:49
Speaker
So that was my adolescence. So
Current Status and Aspirations as GMs
00:34:53
Speaker
moving tool where we are now and where we might want to move into the future. Right. And ah so, so Chris, like where, where are you now and what's going on?
00:35:06
Speaker
um That is a really good question. I
00:35:12
Speaker
i don't know. I, ah there's part of me that says, When it comes to campaign play, I have peaked. And now i am on i am on the downside of things but things. You haven't even run a full campaign for me yet. You can't say that you've peaked.
00:35:35
Speaker
That means that I'm hosed. But but that's the that's the thing is that I think the other the other side of that is my opportunities to run a campaign over the last few years um have have been few and far between and haven't been...
00:36:00
Speaker
I'm back to chasing a certain dragon. um Part of the reason why I said I peaked is because the players I had ah when I felt like I had were, they made me better. They made me a better GM hands down.
00:36:15
Speaker
you You can't convince me otherwise. I've taken a lot from that. I learned a tremendous amount ah from them. But I haven't had the full opportunity to apply that yet. and um And I think that's where, well, you can shrug your shoulders all you want. It just it hasn't it hasn't. Listen, you you could say, well, hey, we had the Hustlung game, but we kind of didn't. It stuttered and stumbled a little bit, and then we lost a player.
00:36:47
Speaker
And then it didn't quite recover. And then life really got in my way. And so we had to suspend the campaign. So before it could really get going, really get going, um it had to stop.
00:37:01
Speaker
and And this isn't a disparaging comment against the Deadlands game that I was running in person because that was a good game. But... there it just there was There was something about it where it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. it I don't know if it was something that I was doing or if it was something the players were or were not doing or a combination of both. I don't know.
00:37:27
Speaker
so But that said, long story longer, um my one-shot game, i'm I'm much better at this than I was even three or four years ago.
00:37:38
Speaker
At least I feel like I am. Um, so that I think is continuing to evolve. Um, where I want to go with this. I do want to, um, I do want to catch that dragon, that campaign dragon. I do want to, I enjoy it. I miss it.
00:37:57
Speaker
Um, and I know that another good experience like that is still out there. So, you know As I look at that future, yes, that's something I want to continue to do. a Yes, I want to ah continue to evolve my one-shot game because I'm recognizing certain crutches that I have to have when it comes to doing that.
00:38:21
Speaker
And i've I've discovered that I'm leaning on those a bit too much. um And so being able to stand on my shaky knees, I want to be able to do that. Dot?
00:38:32
Speaker
I... I am thoroughly enjoying the Han Cluster campaign. It has been an absolutely positive experience through and through.
00:38:48
Speaker
Three out of ten. No notes. great great You have to remember the compliment that that actually is. I know. Yes. To me, it's funny. To me, it's so funny. Exactly. exactly could the way I interpret it is like three out of 10 is the best you can possibly do, so I have no notes. So you have no notes.
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't even think about it that way, but that's so good. That is an amazing way to think about it. And now I won't think about it. That's how I think about it. That's why it's so funny to me. It's like, you can't do me any better than three out of 10. So no notes. That's right. For you. Awesome. You did it.
00:39:31
Speaker
Okay. Well, okay. Yeah. Han Cluster has been amazing. And I'm continuously looking forward to Thursday nights when we game so that I can go into that headspace.
00:39:44
Speaker
I think I've checked a lot of boxes for myself already at this point. Like I've, I've done the stream thing. Like I mentioned, I've, you know made several rounds on podcasts and i i have a successful show that I'm a part of.
00:40:07
Speaker
um multiple successful shows that i have or am currently still a part of. i have a really solid community of people that i feel I can rely on So i I do think that I've I I know that I haven't peaked yet. Like that's I don't think that that would be a fair assessment for me to make of myself.
00:40:35
Speaker
I think the next thing for me is going to be to run my own campaign. That that's, that's the next box, right? Like that's the next thing I need to check off before, you know stuff came up and, and I wasn't able to go to Daikon this year. I really wanted to, but it just, it wasn't going to happen for me, unfortunately.
00:40:56
Speaker
I,
00:40:59
Speaker
i Wasn't nervous at all about running a con game, running like my first real con game. And if you had asked me to do that, say three years ago, would have been petrified, would not have happened, probably would have backed out day of.
00:41:19
Speaker
But even just going into that week, I was like, I haven't even prepped yet. And I'm totally chill. Yeah. I'm good. wow And that like that was that was pivotal for me. That was that was a big growth moment.
00:41:34
Speaker
But when I flip that on its head a little bit and I think about, OK, well, now take that same emotion and put it into trying to run a campaign. Nope. I'm right back to just being flippin terrified.
00:41:48
Speaker
And i think that's the next like challenging thing that I need to. move through in in in my my gaming experience. Sure.
00:42:02
Speaker
I'll tell you, it's super satisfying. It really is. I believe you. Yeah, I think that's it. I think i
Philosophical Insights on Gaming Evolution
00:42:08
Speaker
think running a campaign, that's that's my next um step in maturing.
00:42:13
Speaker
So my maturity, and this is... i ah there's There's one thing i want to talk to about ah what Chris was talking about, and there's a...
00:42:26
Speaker
I don't know if this is a step back exactly. I don't think it is. But my maturity as a game designer, as ah as a campaign and adventure designer and mechanics designer and all that other stuff that's that's now become such a big part of my gaming career,
00:42:46
Speaker
um Like I say, it's not a step back, it's a step forward, but there are compromises that needed to be made there. And what what it does compromise is at my peak – And I'm not saying that I couldn't do this again. i absolutely could. i just haven't done it.
00:43:07
Speaker
with Which is the, i'm not running a module. I'm not running and ah a published adventure. I'm running something that i'm going to find out what happens. And those are still written up to the point where I can, I could do them. I've got a Star Trek game that kind of goes four sessions in mini campaign kind of thing. I've got a supers thing that is called the gods panel where it kind of goes by four sessions and it's all stuff that you guys would just eat up, I think, but it's not anything I could publish because of the nature of
00:43:45
Speaker
ah ah of the game. And this is, this also speaks to some of our discord members who are prideful about the fact that they don't have any notes to go off of when they start their game session. Right.
00:43:59
Speaker
I think there's benefits to both, but, but, That's where i'm I don't do that anymore. I don't start with a premise and say, okay, well, here's my overarching idea, but I have no idea what's going to happen. You guys make your characters and then let's play and then I'll figure it out week to week what's going on.
00:44:19
Speaker
right I don't do that anymore. I just don't. and i could and I kind of miss it, but also I kind of don't miss it because it was extremely stressful.
00:44:33
Speaker
to do that to meet for me. i mean, it was to make a good game doing that, and I i can do it, but it's, oof, man. you know like ah i try I ran Teen Crush as a campaign at first before I made it a one-shot, and i'm I pulled it off, but, oof, it's stressful because I'm trying to, like Chris said, incorporate what the PCs are doing.
00:45:03
Speaker
And really making their actions impact not just the trappings of the game, not just the how you get there, but the actual what what the destination is. That's hard to do without making notes. if it is hard to me It is hard to do without making notes. and And I like my tendency for gaming in a way that's easy for me, in a way that is much more sustainable.
00:45:30
Speaker
is to have that destination like a plot point has to say, here's the final act in the p plot point. We're going to get here eventually. It's how we get here that's the fun part.
00:45:42
Speaker
As opposed to these improvisational setups where I'm like, I've got an overarching idea for what's going to happen, but the PCs are going to influence the plot more than they would in a PPC, right?
00:45:58
Speaker
Harder. but also and And impossible to publish. I mean, it just it's it's really hard. And and people people try to publish it, but to me, it's like, well, you're not doing the work.
00:46:10
Speaker
You're putting all the work on me, the GM, anyway. So why do i buy this? What's the point? If you're just saying, well, this is up to the GM to figure out. Like, well, I'm not going to buy your stuff.
00:46:21
Speaker
I can do that myself. I don't need you. That's why PPCs are so valuable to me because they already do the work. I read a chapter an hour or two in advance and I know what to do. you know So that this is all a way of saying my maturity has come to a point where I'm designing games. I'm designing plot point campaigns, which was a few years ago inconceivable to me. I'm like, I don't even know where to start.
00:46:49
Speaker
how to do that. You know, I'm like, this is really intimidating, but I just started and I just did it and I just learned how to do it. And and it's still hard. It's still, i mean, even just this stupid adventure that we're, that I just play tested, not stupid. It's a great adventure, but it's, it's, it's stupid because it's hard.
00:47:11
Speaker
Like it's hard to refine. It's hard to make it right. It's hard to, to, to do it so that it, this is worthy of publication. And um that's where I'm at now.
00:47:22
Speaker
I think I'm rambling. I'm i'm talking philosophically like like Chris was, but but that's where I'm at. And where I want to go is i feel like um I want to get back to a little bit of that, like just running a game without the intent to publish, because that brings me back to that feeling of, of,
00:47:52
Speaker
We're not sure where we're going at adventure. Well, and then there's a distinct lack of pressure of a different kind of pressure when you're, when you're running for fun as yeah opposed to running to test. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. yeah i tend to not do that these days because I'm always working on something, you know,
00:48:10
Speaker
I think it's good, though, that just go back to the philosophy point. I think it's good that the three of us are here having this sort of deeper esoteric philosophical discussion, especially when we contrast it to last week when we're just talking about bathrooms at conventions. sure So I like this. I appreciate the fact that there's incredible breadth going on here. And I think we need to appreciate that.
00:48:38
Speaker
i agree. i agree. We've got a wide range here. We do have a wide range. we have a Exactly. So that there's a lot of tangents. I mean, that's really kind of what's going on.
00:48:50
Speaker
That's the whole point. Exactly. is
Closing Humor and Reflections
00:48:53
Speaker
You said the name of the show in in the show. I did. i did it last week, too. Right away in the beginning.
00:49:00
Speaker
And then I made a joke about having a plangent. Yes, you did. I demanded that. a planned It was a planned tangent. I'm not saying it was a good joke, but it was a joke.
00:49:16
Speaker
Thanks for hanging out with us. Whether you're behind the screen, at the table, or lost in your own story, we hope you found a little inspiration. If you enjoy our tangents, be sure to connect with us on Discord and follow us on socials to keep the conversation going.
00:49:32
Speaker
Until next time.
00:49:43
Speaker
Okay. How do you catch a polar bear? i don't know. You cut a hole in the ice and you sprinkle some peas around it. And when the polar bear comes to take a pea, you kick him in the ice hole.
00:49:54
Speaker
Why? Why?
00:49:58
Speaker
Why are you like this?