Been away for awhile.
It’s been wild since coming back to New Mexico almost two years ago. My gaming life is simultaneously at its peak, and at its lowest. I’m no longer playing with my closest friends, for who I’ve been running games for many, many years. Instead, I’m trying to forge a new dedicated gaming group which you probably know is pretty tough. Fortunately, my wife (I got married in September), works at the best game store in Albuquerque. Although that has exposed me to a lot of new people who like D&D, it’s still tough simply being in a new city with different tastes. For instance, I basically stopped playing Pathfinder because everyone out here is way more into 5E - which I’m glad for, because I love 5E. The gaming group I do have now mostly consists of students - all of which are about to leave school or take a whole year abroad. TLDR; it’s been challenging.
Some highlights though - I’ve started getting way more into war gaming. Warhammer Age of Sigmar (not a 40K fan, really), Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadow Deep (both of which are small publisher games that are some personal favorites), and exploring other RPGs like Tales From the Loop, Kids on Bikes, and if all goes well, I’ll be participating in a The One Ring game that’s gonna be more than one session.
I’ve also been playing a ton of board games. My Little Scythe is a current favorite. The Fallout board game is actually really cool (and more fun than I’ve ever had playing a Fallout video game). Deep Madness, a claustrophobic game that feels like a mix of Aliens, Event Horizon, and Sphere is a lot of fun and incredibly challenging. I’m trying to get a few people to start (and finish) a Kingdom Death campaign since I hate that it’s just sitting in my game closet.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to and why I haven’t had many “pro tips” lately. Aside from the fact that there’s SO MUCH content (and better content than I could summon) out there with Web DM and (my personal favorite) Matthew Colville. However, I have been considering making something - be it a Youtube channel or a Podcast or something - celebrating and talking about games that are from small(er) publishers than Wizards of the Coast and the other juggernauts in gaming. We’ll see.
If you read through all this - thanks! Hopefully I’ll have some good stuff for you soon.