Coffee, Code, and Chronicles

I've started seeing an emergent trend in Role Playing Games (RPGs) of late.  The issue with using the word “emergent" is that the algorithms at play in many platforms are geared to feeding you more of what you watch. Platforms become echo chambers.  Solo gaming may in fact not be emergent at all. But I consume a lot of role playing media on YouTube and there are a few “soloists" that I've caught and thus YouTube desires to feed the beast. Of the two “soloists" that have my attention, the first has more than 20,000 subscribers, the other just 920. The former is published, the latter is prolific and seems to be highly detail oriented with a lot of personal frameworks to drive the story telling in a purely randomly generated manner. Soloing I'm told is also called “journaling." I like this framing and as one that watches a limited amount of the available content can see how “journaling" is apropos . A gamer can quickly find themselves seeking to capita...

Busy month of May following my A-to-Z Challenge 2025 reentry into blogging. June will likely prove to be as busy, but I'm hoping to restart more regular blogging and take opportunities to write and schedule. This may prove to be a better way for me to blog as I often start on something “more important," relatively, and then pass on firing up blogger. May highlights include: The dash to mid-year performance feedback—and I had a lot of requests!—and these take time. Trust me. Ever have to provide “ Opportunities" for a hi-performing colleague? Try it some time. We brewed our Summer blonde ale, Beached Blond (2025) , a couple of weeks ago. Kegged, chilled, and ready for the beach. Games, games, games! The Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4e) game continues apace with a summer break, somewhat forced by personal matters, ahead. But I'll be back with a Niklos Tale soon. Finding the right game event for a narrative, while a challenge, shows that there's a lot of possibilities...

As always I enjoy the A to Z Challenge.  My first was in 2011. I won “an award” that year from another blog recognizing fan content to the Warhammer community. I participated annually for almost a decade. Each year building more content on that theme. One year I partnered with Ben Scerri in a cross posting effort. My first international effort. Ben is now a contributing writer for Cubicle 7, the licensee of the Warhammer property and publisher of the current edition of Warhammer FRP.  The A to Z Challenge “forces me” to blog. 😉 I’m a creative and I believe blogging and gaming contributes to my career in unique ways. It contributes to solving and evaluating problems in Software Architecture. Gaming contributes to my social skills and management of people. Try wrangling four to five players at a table and, as referee, watch a story arc meet the player’s goals for their characters. Challenges all around. After a two or three year break I’m glad to be back blogging and I’m gratef...

A bit of a meta post.  The theme has been Table Top Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) and their settings and the fiction that can be seeded by and created in and around it. TTRPGs come in a lot settings and systems today. None appeal to me more than the Old School Renaissance or Old School Revival—I prefer the former over the latter, but both are acceptable—games that lean into the medieval fantasy settings and systems building on the original Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) games of the 1970s and 1980s. OSR games build on the original “white box" D&D release (0e) and often include work that builds on the play style prominent in the 1970s: “Player Skill, not Character Abilities." This style breaks the fourth wall using the fact that you are playing a game. The dice provide friction and prevent the game from becoming just “playing pretend," and the situations are challenges presented by the Dungeon Master, a friend at the table, but not necessarily cheering you or your chara...