TTRPGs hit me hard

Shortly before the pandemic, a friend handed me a copy of “Hoard of the Dragon Queen” and said: “run this for us.” It had been over 30 years since I’d played Dungeons and Dragons, but I decided it was time to get back into the hobby. Then the pandemic hit, online Table Top Roleplaying Gaming (TTRPG) went bonkers, and I went bonkers right along with it.

I started running a five-hour session every week and then played in two other games. Then, I signed up to run some homebrew games at Dungeon Con Online, Origins Online, and Gen Con Online. I sought out podcasts and blogs—and watched YouTube videos. The nerdom hit me hard.

Now I’m in deep. This summer, I ran 32 hours of Dungeons and Dragons for the Adventurer’s League at Gen Con Indianapolis. It was a blast. I just returned from Gamehole Con in Madison, WI, where I ran 16 hours of play-testing for a Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) adventure I plan to publish during Zine Quest in February called “The Sorcerer’s Fate.”

Yesterday, I submitted my events for Gary Con in Lake Geneva, WI, next March. I’ll be play-testing the second adventure in the series “The Sorcerer Returns.”

On top of that, my collection of books, zines, systems, settings, adventures, how-to’s, trivia, histories, and art has grown remarkably over the past five years. I started with “HotDQ” six years ago, and now I have this:

It’s not much by some standards, and sure, there are some board games and comic books in there. But wait ’til all the Kickstarters I’ve backed start rolling in! I’m not sure what I’ll do. My office in our apartment (I live in Chicago, IL) is out of wall space. I could put shelves in front of the windows, I suppose. Actually, I’ve added some items to the shelves since I took this picture!

I have a problem. 

Not to mention dice.

That’s only about half of them. So far, I have resisted the mini-painting arm of the hobby. I worry if I head down that road, I’m a goner. It’s only a matter of time, I guess.

My hope, though, is that as I mature into the hobby, I can start to contribute to it as a creator and not just as a consumer. Maybe I can get the hobby to pay for itself. Probably not. Publishing is a pretty expensive hobby, too. So is starting a small business (see T-shirts are one of my love languages and Running a print-on-demand t-shirt company). But it’s where my passion is taking me.

I love GMing and playing in sessions, but community building and content creation hold more interest for me these days. When I go to conventions, I split my time between running games, play-testing content, playing systems I don’t have a chance to at home, volunteering with the con, talking to friends and vendors, and attending seminars.

As hobbies go, I can’t think of one that offers more opportunities to explore as many creative and practical disciplines or is as accessible. I have found that my skills, applicable in the real world, have grown since I re-entered the hobby. My confidence in public speaking (and, honestly, my confidence in general) has increased. My social-emotional skills, project management, and leadership have developed as well.

The community surrounding TTRPGs has passionate and supportive people—people who are willing to help you every step of the way—people who want to help you realize your goals.

It is a community, though. Like in all societies, there are conflicts, camps, rivalries, and voices that you may disagree with. But, I find a lot of common ground between folks who wouldn’t usually find it in the world at large as well. When I’m playing with my weekly groups or at a convention, I know I’m with my tribe. I know I’m home.

Like the title says: “TTRPGs hit me hard.”