Someone on Reddit in r/rpg asked what the biggest surprise of 2023 was for us.
This is the kind of thing I enjoy talking about, so I thought I’d share it here.
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The biggest surprise for me this year was finding my way back into the depths of my library.
My first RPG was D&D Basic in 1983, and I’ve played ever since, tons of systems. I love it. It’s even part of my job.
But somewhere along the line, I lost the ability to pick up a module, some rules, a sourcebook, whatever, and just read it for the sake of reading it, to enjoy the prose, the box text, the illustrations, the fiction, unless I was going to play the game.
So I have entire shelves in my library that are filled with RPGs I haven’t read, but “want to play someday.”
This year, I read an AMA here from Stu Horvath, and someone asked if it was normal to just read RPG materials for fun, with no intention of playing them. He observed that there was nothing stopping anyone from doing just that, and for some reason, that’s what I, a 51 year-old Ur-Gamer from the Old Times needed to hear.
It was late in the year, but since then, I’ve gone through maybe a dozen of my books, some of them various flavors of D&D, most of them indie RPGs, all of them games I don’t think I’ll ever play, but *intensely* enjoyed reading.
The pandemic delivered a metaphorical (and practical) TPK to my group, and I don’t know how quickly or easily I’ll be able to assemble a new one, but when I do, it’s going to be one hell of a game, because I have all these new ideas and inspirations in my head, from reading systems and adventures I’ll probably never play.
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When I was in my teens, I read every GURPS sourcebook I could, cover to cover, losing myself in the imaginary worlds they represented. I loved those things as much as I loved any novel. I read all the FASA Star Trek RPG sourcebooks, because I wanted to know everything I could about the imaginary world I lived and worked in. Also: blueprints. So many wonderful blueprints.
I’ve recently read The Skeletons (the players are the undead who guard a tomb that is defiled by adventurers), Maschinezeit (what if dead spaceships were possessed by Lovecraftian cosmic horrors and you went to one, anyway?), Mothership (in space, no one can survive), and about half of The Lost Mine of Phandelver (5e starter box) because I hope to run it in the new year for a small group of friends.
I have shelf after shelf of books from popular systems, indie systems, out of print systems, loved and hated systems, and 2023 was the year I stumbled into permission to read them on my terms, rather than reading them to prep for a test.
Maybe 2024 will be the year I played more RPGs than I have in a long time.
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I believe in you, Wil!
Hey Wil. Just FYI, my friend Glenn Grant did some of the illustrations for the GURPS Traveler sci-fi RPG supplements – Far Trader, several of the Alien Races books, Ground Forces, and others. He’s a sci-fi editor and author in his own right, he edited the two Northern Suns anthologies of Canadian sci-fi, used to run a very cool sci-fi zine called Edge Detector as well. He published a novel a few years ago called Burning Days. If you can find copies I think you’d enjoy them.
Funny that you should mention the FASATrek sourcebooks. I have a few of those, have been doing reading of material from others, and am building a new map of the border spaces between the Federation and the Klingons incorporating some of that stuff, built upon the “bones” of Geoffrey Mandel’s mapwork of the 2000’s. Lots of jumping around between Memory Alpha and Beta, HYGMap.space, SIMBAD, Wolfram Alpha, Wikipedia, and on and on…it’s been fun so far.
And yeah, reading sourcebooks for games I’ll never play has brought its own joys over the decades for me too!
Finally reading my Covid pile of RPG acquisitions has been a delight of late. And I couldn’t do it until I gave myself permission to just read them for fun and not with an expectation that I “do” something with them.
It makes me so happy to hear this! I’ve been thinking the same thing, as my son gets more and more involved in D&D at our local store. My joy from this blog entry though, is that about ten years ago I did a youtube search for “funny d&d” and found a video of a game featuring everybody’s favorite acting ensign. That video and all that you did on Tabletop rekindled my love of RPGs and gaming. I’m glad you’re able to take the time to work it into your life again.
I do the same. My shelves groan under the weight of unrun systems and modules but the ideas that I take from them and the joy I have in reading them justify their purchase.
The one I keep meaning to actually play is the journaling RPG Apothecaria (You’re a witch taking over the hut of the previous one who for unknown reasons is no longer around).
The only thing that keeps my shelves from groaning under the weight is I pretty much exclusively buy PDFs these days. While I absolutely do appreciate physical media, I also appreciate not filling a couple of rooms with stuff and that we’ll probably be moving overseas in a couple of years.
If you don’t have it, and can find a copy as it’s out of print, check out Fortune’s Fool. A diceless system that uses a Tarot deck as a randomizer! The GM never touches the deck – the fate of the players is entirely in their own hands. The setting is kind of classic Renaissance, only you have the full gamut of classic races: Orcs, Goblins, Dwarves, Elves, and Man, of course. The Elves have a very nasty twist of fate for something they did some 2000 years ago…
Cool beans!
“The pandemic delivered a metaphorical (and practical) TPK to my group” — I DM a Monday night online D&D group that just finished campaign 1 (after 4 years), and we’re about to start campaign 2, you’re welcome to join if you like. 🙂
Seriously, sounds fun, and definitely inspiring. I’ve got a library of old stuff, maybe I should pull out the old Paranoia rulebook…