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