TTRPG stands for table-top role-playing game.
These are games you usually (But not always, more on that later) play around a table with other people. This is different from traditional board games like Monopoly in that there is a role-playing component along with more dialogue and story.
TTRPGs almost always have a book or books that contain the basic rules for the game, some lore, and myriad other elements that help flesh out the game.
I have noticed over the years that people that enjoy TTRPGs tend to love owning those physical books; to the point that they will sometimes own more TTRPG books than they actually have room for in their home; sometimes even buying some books more than once: one for home, and a copy for when they're out and about playing with others. What an illness. That isn't an affliction that affects me: I prefer digital books most of the time over physical books; mostly because I prefer how they look on my iPad mini's screen, but also because when you're looking for a specific rule or piece of information, you can use a search function to find it faster. Also, I can carry an entire library around with me wherever I go and still have it all in a compact and light form-factor. In fact, given the choice between a physical rulebook for a TTRPG and its PDF equivalent, I'll almost always take the PDF. It's possible this might change in the future, but for now, that's where I am.
After playing the Blade Runner TTRPG this summer, I admit I became more curious and interested in learning more about TTRPGs in general.
In the process of learning more about TTRPGs, I found out about VTTs, or virtual table-tops. A VTT is an online platform where you and other people can get together to play TTRPGs online. There are a few VTT platforms out there, each with their own feature sets. A few well known ones are Foundry, Roll20, and Alchemy. It is worth noting that VTTs, while useful in helping people play online, are each their own closed-off system. Meaning that if you buy a TTRPG for Alchemy, you cannot play it with people on Foundry. In fact, you would have to buy it again for Foundry to do that. So before buying a game on any random VTT, I would always recommend first researching the different VTTs and deciding which one you want to ultimately commit to and then buy your games for it...if they're available. That's another thing: Not all games are available for all VTTs. Some TTRPGs are only available for some VTTs. To be clear, you don't have to own a game on a VTT at all. You can choose to only own the physical book(s) or PDFs and play with just that and you'd be fine. VTTs just help make things more visible and concrete when playing with other people online.
Someone I know informed me this summer that Humble Bundle had a bundle on sale offering a bunch of Alchemy VTT modules for games from Free League Publishing. At first, i wasn't that interested; but when he told me that for a limited time, I could also get the PDFs for all those modules, I jumped at the opportunity. So I got the bundle, and then visited Alchemy for the first time. Neat platform. They seem to focus on building an atmosphere for games with the use of music: I love when game masters do that. I quickly downloaded all the PDFs before they were pulled from Alchemy and loaded the ones I found the most interesting unto my iPad mini: Neat.
While I was checking out the Humble Bundle site, I also noticed they offered a bundle for a metric ton of PDFs for the Star Trek Adventures TTRPG. I'm a trekkie and it was a great deal, so I got that too.
By this point, I was high on PDFs and was curious if I could find more at a good price. In my research of TTRPGs, I had discovered this popular online store that is considered a hub for TTRPG PDFs: DriveThruRPG.
Most TTRPG PDFs (But not all) are legally sold on DriveThru. So I decided to check it out and lo and behold, they had sales going on for the Alien and Hellboy TTRPG PDFs. Fuck, I got those too...and a few Alien VTT modules for Roll20...and a few other PDFs for a few other TTRPGs that are less known but had art I really liked.
By now, it was clear to me that I had succumbed to some sort of compulsive purchasing disease like the people I mentioned earlier that kept buying physical TTRPG books.
A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D, the most popular TTRPG in existence) with some people, and they were making use of a platform that will one day become a VTT for D&D called D&D Beyond. It was cool to play with D&D Beyond because it has an iPad app, and when you join the game of a game master that owns a bunch of D&D books on the platform, they can share their books with you. So I gained access to another metric fuckton of electronic D&D books.
Clearly, I have a problem, and I need help. I've gone over a week without trying to buy or obtain another TTRPG PDF, but I don't know how long I'll last. My poor iPad mini is slowly filling up and I haven't even read half of the PDFs yet. I need to stop, but I don't know if I can. I thought I was somehow better than those that compulsively buy physical TTRPG books, but I'm not. I'm worse: I'm not limited by physical space, I'm limited by how much storage space I have, and that means it's easier to just keep getting more PDFs. It's a slippery slope. These things should come with a warning label: "SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: MAY CAUSE EXCESSIVE SPENDING." Please help.
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