I‘m pleased to report that the expectation I noted a while back has come to pass: yesterday, I returned to work at my local public library, administering a game of Dungeons & Dragons for students of such age as to attend middle school. I also returned with them to the narrative milieu in which I had worked with the previous game: Hanlon. I did so in part because it would allow me to use materials I’d already developed in the course of administering games here (helping me to have more planned and scripted, thus helping me keep things running well). There is thus some sense of continuity available to the returning participants (of which there are some, including my daughter). I did advance the in-game time past when the previous game had ended, so while there is much that is or may be familiar to those returning (including a few inside jokes that I am inserting specifically so they can get them), there is also much that will be new to them, and new players at the table will not be alone in casting about for what’s going on.

Yesterday’s session was an extended Session Zero, laying out a number of standards and expectations for play; the hosting library wanted me to make sure to make those expectations more explicit this time around than previously. Part of that was talking about the kind of narrative on offer at present, both contextually and in specific, and I returned again to the framing question suggested before: why the neo/medieval(ist) is a dominant setting for Dungeons & Dragons and for tabletop roleplaying games, more generally. Character building also took some time; rather than arriving with pregenerated characters, as I had last time around, I walked participants through building their own, which building followed from the discussion of the kind of game being offered. Character builds should complete soon (I’ve got many participants and short sessions), with play to begin in earnest thereafter.

I’m honestly looking forward to the coming games. It’s been a pleasure to do the writing I’ve been doing in their support, and the participants seem eager to get into things. (That’s always a good sign.) I’ve been plying the skills I’ve developed in years of putting together play-by-post games, setting up structures that should allow for a variety of approaches and some dynamism of response while still nto putting me in the position of having to wing everything. And as I’ve been going along, more and more parts of the narrative have been slotting themselves into place on the page; while the main thrust of what is facing my players is admittedly somewhat silly, it is taking place amid surroundings that both call back to earlier games (as noted above) and gesture towards deeper concerns that permit of yet further future work, as well as offering fertile ground for the next set of people to administer games in. After all, one of the program’s objectives is to cultivate players who can run games of their own, both helping the local library’s programs to grow and helping the hobby itself endure for decades more than it has already enjoyed.

One other note: special thanks to Paul Murphy for his kind support of this webspace!

I remain pleased to write TTRPG (and other) stuff for you; fill out the form below to get yours started!

Or you can send your support along directly!