TTRPG Babble: Ten years since the commitment

 

I'm one of those strange people who don't like commitments or promises. Why? Because I make it a point of honour to keep them. And it's also why I hate when people idly make promises to me, but that's a rant for somewhere else.

It's now been ten years since the somewhat life-changing commitment I made to a friend. What was that commitment? Well, that I will run a D&D campaign. 

This email marked the lightning-bolt idea that I had for a homebrew game. Copious notes were made, thoughts were scribbled and an email play-by-post was attempted in that same year - though that failed. It would only be five years later that an actual online game would be launched.

In May 2021, I created a Discord server for online D&D. My thought at that point was that the homebrew game, my first 'original' game, was probably only going to last six sessions before it would flounder (yes, I was that optimistic about the game). So I called it "TNO and other short RPGs". 

The 6 planned sessions turned into 59 actual ones running from 2021 to 2025. In conjunction with my 'main' South African game, I would end up running a number of iterations that didn't last long - mostly dying due to player conflict and misplaced expectations. In 2024, I started a North American iteration of the game which aims to play once or twice a month depending on schedules. That's now at 35 sessions.

None of the above is bragging btw, I share it because of the overwhelming stunned shock I still experience when I try to wrap my brain around the thought that I had believed this game would last 6 sessions with one group - whereas now, if I counted all the sessions I've had with people in my homebrew world, that would exceed 100. That's.... staggering.

Presently, I'm running two games in the world - the North American one mentioned above and a South African reboot which is going to its fourth session this Friday. 

Where am I planning on taking it? Well the ultimate dream would be to write up the campaign in some kind of book form. There are a number of challenges with that. One, I'm Afrikaans. Two, I'm lazy. Three, I have ADHD and get distracted super easily. But then there's also the challenge of how to make it system neutral so as not to get sued left, right, and centre. I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm pondering the thought.