#HobbyGamesRecce
Safe spaces – in libraries, at the gaming table, and elsewhere – rely not simply on place, but on the kindness of the people there.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/09/kind-people-make-spaces-safe.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
Want to make sure teaching a new game has a better chance of being a hit rather than a flop? Take the time to prepare by becoming thoroughly familiar with the rules, even to the point of playing it a few times against yourself.

#wargames #boardgames #ttrpgs

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/08/be-prepared-teaching-games.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
I’ve made a design choice working on my fantasy roleplaying game setting. Rather than have a page or two of rumors, drop a list of relevant rumors in each significant section, offering gamemasters easier thematic references and characters plenty of possibilities to explore.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/08/design-choice-rumors.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
Since discovering D&D in junior high school summertime has always meant time for gaming. This still holds true even as a parent. My son and I are indulging in his adoration of all things Clone Wars with some fleet actions in Star Wars: Armada. Although we’re enjoying the game, I’m also revising my skirmish rules for kids so we can break out the clone troopers and battle droids for some quick fights using my Star Wars terrain.

#wargames #StarWars

#HobbyGamesRecce
The adventure gaming hobby isn’t that old – maybe 100 years measuring from H.G. Wells’ Little Wars as miniature wargaming – but it seems so much has come and gone, even recently. Finding that game you missed out on five years ago increasingly proves difficult. I ponder the ephemeral nature of games, how older ones or ones we just missed prove more difficult to find, and how our efforts preserving those things that entertain us now prove ineffectual.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-ephemeral-nature-of-games.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
I love comics like The Adventures of Bamse (in it’s final days on Kickstarter), “true-war” tales that profile personal stories in a global conflict. Humans love hearing and telling stories; history is in small and large ways our own story. Such tales invite us to experience the past through someone else’s perspective for a short while. Games also offer an experience, in various abstracted ways, of immersing ourselves in history first hand.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/05/history-is-our-story.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
Far too often gamers feel their “way” is the only way of doing things, whether it’s basing #wargaming miniatures or rolling up #TTRPG characters. While having a “way” of doing things helps maintain order, flexibility can also help us evolve as players and grow a more accepting community.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/04/tempering-this-is-way.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
I’d wanted to create a #ttrpg experience for my son, but it expanded from a one-off dungeon to an entire setting. I’m immersing myself in the design and writing, exploring various aspects as the inspiration comes and goes. It’s nowhere near complete, but it’s coming together nicely and giving me some much-needed satisfaction. Come along as I set off into the Mage-Blight Hills....

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/04/journey-to-mage-blight-hills.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
I ramble on about the do-it-yourself nature of many miniature wargames and how their overall versatility enables hosts to create customized game experiences for different audiences and venues, all based on my experience seeking to bring “strategy gaming” to the local history museum.

#wargames

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230411

#HobbyGamesRecce
Music helps motivate me in whatever task I’m doing at the moment. Right now, as I design and write a medieval fantasy #TTRPG setting, I’m listening to inspirational music from two sources, one rather recent based in fantasy, another a bit older based on historical sources.

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230321

#HobbyGamesRecce
Back in the mid 1990s when I worked for West End Games I built a traveling diorama of central Mos Eisley starport for running Star Wars Roleplaying Game demos. It hasn’t seen much use lately, but reminds me of nostalgic memories running quick pick-up games and even entire adventures for gamers and fans.

#WestEndGames #StarWarsRPG #MosEisley

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230314

#HobbyGamesRecce
While attending a recent talk at the local history museum – about African-American and Native American patriots who severed in the Revolutionary War – we stood near an exhibit I’d wanted to photograph but had overlooked. So I returned later to take pictures of some early 20th century American Civil War toy soldiers before they marched back to storage.

#wargames #AmericanCivilWar

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230214

#HobbyGamesRecce

I can’t always muster the energy to attend conventions these days, though in my youth I maintained a solid con schedule. I’m not that young anymore and have a host of other considerations affecting my aging adult life. I occasionally run roleplaying or wargames at cons today, and try hosting other public gaming events, but the effort requires me to replenish my reserves of energy, patience, and optimism.

#Wargames #TTRPG

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230207

#HobbyGamesRecce
After talking about presenting a #TTRPG setting with no rules, I resurrected and revised an old effort at doing that...removing game mechanics from a programmed solitaire fantasy adventure. Not as easy in that form as expected, but it works with players adhering to the honor system. Endure my meandering musings and download a free PDF solitaire adventure. Share and enjoy.

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230124

Goodness knows I’ve prattled on over at #HobbyGamesRecce about the moral complications of playing at war over the years...especially in my urge to use #wargames to interest kids and hobby newcomers in historical periods. Liz Davidson over at Beyond Solitaire recently wrote a very thoughtful and far more elegant piece about the delicate issues sometimes arising from wargames and play. Don’t miss the insightful, considerate discussion in the comments.

https://www.beyondsolitaire.net/blog/art-controversy-and-wargames

#HobbyGamesRecce
All the recent fuss about open game licenses had me thinking how we can, with relative ease, remove the rules from a themed roleplaying game but find it much more difficult to extract or design a system-neutral setting with no references to game mechanics at all. Not wholly unrelated to my current system-neutral setting project....

#TTRPG

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2023/01/extracting-system-setting.html

#HobbyGamesRecce
Every time someone uses the specific name “D&D” when they mean “roleplaying games” further cements the brand as the only perceived aspect of that hobby. I encourage everyone to refer to our pastime as “roleplaying games” or “RPGs” as a wider recognition of the volume and diversity of such games available today.

#D&D #Hasbro #TTRPG

https://tinyurl.com/rpgbandaid

#HobbyGamesRecce
Finding time to immerse ourselves in our #TTRPG game worlds is more difficult as adults than when we had more free time and fewer responsibilities in our younger days. Playing the game can certainly offer an escape, but sometimes we lose ourselves in the creative process of exploring and crafting our settings.

https://tinyurl.com/HGR230103

#HobbyGamesRecce
How could I – the gamemaster who used soundtracks to accompany ROG sessions for years – overlook Tabletop Audio all this time? The internet is so infinitely vast I’m bound to miss out on something, even the popular excellent stuff. Luckily I stumbled on Tabletop Audio recently and am immersing myself in the amazingly huge library of free RPG music and ambient sound tracks suitable for a host of roleplaying games (and some writing inspiration).

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2022/12/finally-discovering-tabletop-audio.html

#HobbyGamesRecce

This yuletide season I feel far more encouraged than any of the past few. Sure, we’re slowly coming out of the covid pandemic (or getting used to continued precautions...not sure which). But upon reflection I realize I have a nice backlog of gaming goodies to enjoy once the onslaught of holiday activities ebbs and a few gaming developments coming together for the new year.

Shout out to @shawntomkin

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-little-more-light-this-year.html