Hey there Digital Neighbors at Padre’s! I thought I would take some time to share a hobby that has brought me much joy over the years and still does so today, TTRPG: tabletop role-playing games. I have mentioned them at various times over the years within this community, but much to my surprise August is TTRPG month! I won’t promise you a month of posts about the hobby, but I will share with you more than any non-hobbyist would want to know.
My discovery of the hobby came in 1980 when I was a freshman at the preparatory high school seminary. I was a boarder at the college seminary, and it was there that I saw the college seminarians first playing the game. It was before the Satanic Panic and the game was still in the realm of niche dorkery. I know some of you may still consider it a niche hobby, but TTRPG are like the Virgin Slims of hobbies, you’ve come a long way baby! The narrative godfathers of the hobby are Gary Gygax and Dave Arenson who developed D & D from gaming with miniatures in scale warfare games. Back in the 1970’s the thought came to them of individual characters that ran successive campaigns instead of one-offs with unnamed combatants. Sprinkle in myth and magic and POOF you have a TTRPG happening in your midst.
Why play? To share in the joy of an interactive story with your friends. That is really the main reason for playing. If you love stories, TTRPGs offer you and you your friends the opportunity to share in the creative process of making a story. Over the next thirty-one days I will look at some aspects of this hobby and share my thoughts, memories and commentary on it. Consider these posts the good, the bad and the ugly of the hobby as it has unfolded in our culture.
The clip from the Gamers is a good window into the hobby. Critical Role took what the Gamers did and elevated it with professional voice actors who made the game look cool. However, most games do not have professional voice actors to enhance it, but rather committed players wanting to make time for the hobby. I doubt most tables have people coming dressed as their character, they look more like the college guys gatherer around the table in the clip.
It used to be readers of fantasy that played D & D and other TTRPGs, but now thanks to movies, TV shows and anime more people than ever have been exposed to the idea of fantasy role playing. TTRPGs encompass the fantasy genre and go well beyond it. Any type of story could hypothetically be turned into an RPG if you have the creativity to do so. Fantasy is easy because one can imagine hundreds of ideas for adventures and characters. Being an avid reader certainly gave players an advantage over those who didn’t because they can ask the question of what kind of character do they want this to be? What do they think this character will have as his or her goals and motivations? Am I just going to play a story version of myself with some variations or is this going to be a character totally different than myself?
We talk often about internal dialogue in our community, if you don’t possess one, I would think that TTRPGs would be beyond you. If you never ask yourself questions, wonder about any manner of random subjects, get lost in introspection, light or dark, conceiving of a character to play is probably beyond you. I am not sure how many people don’t possess an internal dialogue, I hope it is more than we imagine, but having one is essential to creativity.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxUenu1ZrGQhl5yX-QhNM6YIsjbY6TtFKw?si=8elDGITZSrngA6ED
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
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2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
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Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
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Good morning, digital neighbors! Blessed Sabbath to all the sons and daughters of Abraham, and happy Saturday to all you other subscribers out there in the wilds of Locals and Substack. I hope all of you have had a great week. I can’t complain about anything of significance. The world is always a mess, and at times I doubt we will ever get back to the blessings of 2019, a record year of prosperity and growth in the States like nothing we had seen since the 1950s. Then along came the Plandemic, which tainted and twisted life and relationships in so many terrible ways. 2020 and 2021 are still my least favorite years of life. Well, no need to rehash what we all know about those years of division, fear, and deception. Off to some more autumn quotes for your morning reflection. Have a blessed day, and thank God for all good things known and so many more hidden from our awareness.
“Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.” — Faith Baldwin...
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
