A Little Less Conversation

How about, instead of posting another move or playbook, we actually just start a game on G+?

Play by post gaming. Play by email. Play by forum. They're not as good as the real thing. Few deny this. I get it.

But you know what those formats are better than? Talking about RPGs.

Over the past few months, I've grown disillusioned with the massive amount of shit-talking that goes on when it comes to the hobby. The internet is fucking clogged with "Here are some untested hacks/rules I wrote while I was bored;" "Here is an adventure idea. Not an actual adventure, mind you, just an idea;" "Here's my opinion on Some Game;" "Here's my opinion on another game; "Here's a link to another discussion about another game."

Why are we doing this? If we love RPGs so much, why are we talking about them so much when we could be actually playing them? The advantage to having a sedentary hobby is you can do it almost anywhere you can just sit. And you sit in front of a computer, right? If you can type enough lines to tell the internet what you think of something, don't you have all the tools you need to just play something?

Again, I totally understand that play-by-post is a different animal. Again, I understand that people who like RPGs face-to-face may have no interest in playing them electronically.  I'm not talking to those people. I'm talking to the people who spend more time and effort and emotional investment writing G+ posts, forum posts, or (fuck it) blog posts than they do playing these games they supposedly love.

Yeah, that's right. Blog posts. I'll go ahead and put myself on blast, here. Though, in my defense, part of the reason the post frequency in this blog has gone down so sharply is because I've been funneling my passion for gaming more into actual gaming than just writing about it.

And given that, I know, it's hard work. It's not easy. It's much easier to just bullshit about RPGs than to play them. That's always been our problem, hasn't it? So much work, and sometimes there's so little payoff. But that payoff, when it's there? It's the stuff of life, ain't it? It makes friendships. Sometimes it even makes families. And that's why we put up with it.

What I'm asking now, Dear Reader, is to take it a step further. Bring the fight to the enemy (the enemy, in this metaphor, is "not playing a role-playing game right this moment.") I'm going to try and do the same. I may start up a play-by-post thing soon. Way, way back in 2013, I briefly began a play-by-tweet Dungeon World game. I had a lot of fun with it, but it eventually collapsed under the weight of Life. That happens. It's okay. I'm going to try it again. I encourage you to do the same.