Courtesy of The Wonderful World of Cinema we have a recap of the steps to accept the award:
1. Include the Sunshine Blogger Awards somewhere on your blog and/or in the article
2. Thank the person who nominated you
3. Share the link to this person’s blog (it goes without saying)
4. Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you. In my case, it will be 22 questions.
5. Nominate 11 bloggers yourself.
6. Ask 11 questions to these bloggers.
7. Notify the bloggers by commenting on their blogs.
So should you find yourself nominated below, and you would like to accept and pass it on, this is the process.
The Questions
Why did you start blogging, and why do you keep doing it?
I first blogged back at the turn of the century when a good friend offered to stand up a (bespoke) site for me. College game soc had a lively forum but having an outboard blog to store things was also handy.
After a long hiatus without much game blogging, I got back into it properly with a blogspot over the pandemic - I found myself with time in hand, had been reading the OSR blogs and decided to get back to gaming and write about it. I am not one of the great innovators of the blogosphere so I think the best I can do is document the craft of gaming - pull the ideas of the internet, take them to the table and write up how it goes. That and crunching the few data-sets of gaming demographics and preferences we get, which I find fascinating.
Why did you choose the blogging platform that you use?
I went with googles in-house platform on a 'devil you know' basis; they already have me for everything else, what more harm could it do?
Why a blog, rather than a YouTube channel or a podcast? Beyond the 'keeping your face off the web' aspect of writing with a pen name, I was a writer long before being a blogger and I like to read more than listen to videos or podcasts. "Write what you like to read" is a mantra I picked up somewhere along the way. Writing fits more easily into life by small blocks too.
What are your favourite games and gaming genres, and why?
I was known as a Planescape DM for most of my 'first wave' of gaming - teen/college/20s - and that exploration of the high-fantastic has stuck with me. I am not a systems driven DM - I have been happy to play WFRP, L5R, different editions of D&D, Spire, etc. - but similarly I can generally do most things I want to do with D&D.
Favoured genre is fantasy - and I think it is because with a relatively low tech level, acts of human physicality like swinging off a chandelier or hurling a rock are valid options which gives players room to come up with ideas. The vast range of OSR settings will keep me busy til the heat death of the universe at this rate.
Outside of TTRPGs, I have always been a big Civ fan, Civilization IV with the Fall From Heaven II mods in particular. Recently I have gotten good mileage from Mass Effect, Dispatch, Battletech, Stellaris, Sunless Sea, Baldurs Gate 3 and Rogue Trader - I like my CRPGs too - getting to make things go boom is also fun.
What game is criminally overlooked and should be more widely played? Why?
The Full Metal Fantasy version of Iron Kingdoms maybe? Much like WHFRP sprang from Warhammer, Warmachine beget Iron Kingdoms and I think retaining the FMF 'spirals' system might have driven a more distinct game. As is, I have a shelf full of 3.5e and 5e Iron Kingdoms so hardly as if the game has died in the shadows.
On a similar note, I reckon there is an OSR-esque potential around using the old 80s Rogue Trader rules for playing 40KRP, combat would be brutal and unforgiving - but for certain flavours of games, that would be entirely ok.
What RPG mechanic should be more widely known and used?
I like the overloaded encounter die a lot - on the principle that any roll should yield something interesting, not roll after roll where nothing happens. I use it for wilderness journeys and exploration, it is originally designed for dungeons, works well with just a little retrofitting
You're suddenly placed in charge of your favourite game and can make any changes to it you like, money is no object. What's the game, and what are the changes?
I struggled to think of an answer that is not 'D&D' and have to roll with that. Two options; I would grab Skerples and on the basis of their Monster, Treasure and Spells Overhaul, hand them a blank check book, wave vaguely at the rest of the building and say 'fix it' then get out of the way.
Second, since money is no object, I am setting up a "Basic Income for the Arts" program to support TTRPG creators - not just D&D, whatever. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
You assemble your dream team of RPG authors to work together on a game, setting and campaign tailored just for you. Money is no object, so it can have any components you like. Who are the authors? Describe the game they produce.
Money is no object so I am doing a two-legged Grand Astral campaign - the Spelljammer part done by Zedeck Siew, Munkao and Luka Rejec, with fantastic and varied worlds, and the Planescape leg done by Gar Hanrahan, Patrick Stewart and Scrap Princess. The two campaigns intersect across the astral sea. My thought to the whole thing is some manner of enormous scavenger hunt, but I am sure these talents will come up with a better idea.
I want to give the Spelljammer team all the room the could want to paint new worlds which feel truly different; to cut that setting loose to reveal its full potential.
I want the Planescape team to wire together the wild sprawl of the planes with the kind of tight threading that keeps it all feeling coherent, to torque that setting tighter.
What is the best size, or size range, for a gaming group?
It depends - home-campaign is three for high-scheming political drama. Hexcrawl is six, play when three are available for knock-about wilderness adventuring. I think online 2-4 is good, in person 3-5 is good, with those thresholds fed by either a small committed group or a big roster doing drop-in, drop-out.
What are your main interests outside gaming and blogging?
Reading, all sorts of things with a solid slab of sci-fi series holding it up. Recent favourites have been Murderbot, Penric and Desdemona, Duchy of Terra, Longmire.
Writing - currently mothballed after being the focus during my gaming hiatus. I have vague ambitions to get a stack of airport novels published. I need to devote the grit to editing down one of the many drafts moldering on my shelves.
My Nominees
Elmcat - in particular for the blogosphere project
Prismatic Wasteland - for hosting multiple blogwagons
DIY & Dragons - for their Lego bandwagon
The Nothic's Eye - for Glaugust
Of Dice & Dragons - for the RPG Blog Carnival
Gorgon Bones for their Hobby Best Practices blogs
Awesome Lies for their unearthing of OldhHammer treasures
Joy & Forgetfulness - for tales of gaming with the next generation
Trick's Tales - for their Seven Part Pact session report
Grumpy Wizard - for their touchstone Do It Ourselves post
Vladar - for their Planescape reviews
My Questions for Nominees
1. Why do you write a blog anyway?
2. If you could persuade your readers of one thing, what would it be?
3. What is your favourite blogpost out there and why?
4. Other than writing a blog, what are your creative outlets these days?
5. What are your three favorite genres?
6. What has been your most enjoyable game played recently?
7. What have been your greatest lessons learned around gaming?
8. What tips would you offer to someone starting out blogging?
9. If you were introducing someone to TTRPGs, how would you do so?
10. You get a new edition or expansion to any game you like, what would you want & why?
11. Describe your impossible dream of a campaign.
I look forward to reading the responses of any who choose to accept their award!
Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteRe: FMF Iron Kingdoms, from what I vaguely remember of it it was a bit too crunchy to me, but it did seem super interesting. I liked how PCs were supposed to choose two classes rather than one; baking "multiclassing" into the design means that by default you're going to get more variety of characters.