#rpgblog — Public Fediverse posts

Freedom Day September 2026.

Happy Birthday to Thunder Meep Kitten and Noche Moop Kitten.

Today we have cat pictures. They’ve grown so much since they were tiny little balls of fluff. We found them hungry, cold, and scared last October 19th. The Animal Rescue League guessed they were 2-3 weeks old. I bottle fed them I-don’t-remember times per day until they finally transitioned to regular food. Now they get the zoomies at least a couple of times per day when they’re not napping or getting into something.

Now for the rest of the story: Why I don’t fit into the grand dichotomy of TTRPG community.

It’s probably a good thing that I have four loving fur children. \They do keep my spirits up and when I’m lonely I can go pick on at least one of them. Lately I’ve chosen cats over people. Yes, I still need to find a therapist I can work with.

I know it sounds silly. We’re constantly at odds with each other over a game about elves with sticks. One camp we’ll call the Old School Renaissance, (Old School Revival, Resistance, Rebellion, R-whatever today.) The other side of the coin is what I call “The Cool Kids Club.” You know, those younger 5E players who follow the likes of Ginny Di, and who think old white guys like me “can’t leave fast enough for this hobby.” There’s actually a third and maybe some more outliers to this particular social dichotomy who get swept under the rug because we don’t fit neatly in either category.

I’m too liberal and open-minded for the OSR. The conservative right wingnuts what populate the OSR do not like my politics or my stance on LGBTQIA+ issues. I also don’t embrace old Dungeons & Dragons BECMI, !st Ed AD&D, 2nd Ed AD&D, Old School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, OSRIC, or Shadowdark like they’re old wayward pets who I haven’t seen in years. That’s not to say I don’t love those games and more, but my ethical and political stance negates any opinion I might have if X (Twitter) and YouTube are to be believed.

But I was unceremoniously ejected from the Cool Kids Club, too. Between Knigobi’s Discord server and a couple of other DungeonTubers I followed on there; I really got the impression that there’s not a place for me with the younger crowd. I found it especially ironic on BlueSky and Instagram when a white dude younger than I am was telling me I needed to get out of the hobby. (Just because I blocked you doesn’t mean I forgot you, Craig of Inspiration.) Your sentiment is going to age like warm cottage cheese and I’m still here, dude.

This dichotomy might possibly be hindering my YouTube growth.

I tried early on to capitalize on the new D&D5.5E Dungeon Master’s Guide before it came out by putting out some videos on why we need more Game Masters in the hobby and how it’s easy/fun to be a GM. In fact, I’ve been ahead of the curve on more than one topic on YouTube; just six months ahead in some cases. I mean, I come out with a video for new GMs. Ginny Di with her 935K subscribers does basically the same video only with more skits and cleavage than I have and gets thousands more views. Go figure.

I’ve been further shamed and ejected from the Cool Kids Club, demographics aside, because of my use and occasional defense of AI tools. This is a topic for a much larger discussion that neither side of the coin seems to want to engage with. We’ll circle back to in at a later date. The high personal cost of the AI debate has been painful to me. But dumpy old AI-loving me can’t compete with Diana of the Rose or Dadi from Mystic Arts, right? Who would you rather be friends with on YouTube or IRL?

At the same time I’ve done a few hot take views on trending topics such as the Jason Buhlman political comment disaster and more recently this WotC Dark Sun business. Usually the negative heat videos do better. I pop off on the Wizards of the Coast and Paizo stupidity because I think something needs to be said and because I am an old white guy from the Midwest flyover states. (I have not forgotten you, Tondro.)

I’m actually ashamed to admit that the Paizo video and some of the hotter takes have gotten better metrics than my regular TTRPG videos. Unfortunately it was a painful lesson that needs to be pointed out. Saying “I don’t want ______ (person, demographic, political group) buying my product” sounds exactly like “Don’t buy my product. I hate making money.” That’s why I popped off on that one. Maybe some aspiring game company president will hear my pleas and not go down the same stupid road.

I will also point out that at least on YouTube, any time someone quotes Mike Shea (Sly Flourish) or any other DungeonTuber shill from the WotC 12-member Council of Doom? Thumbs down, gone, deleted from Watch History to keep the algorithm from serving more crap. If I want Mike Shea’s opinion, I live in a state with lots of cows. I’ll go find the proper end of the bull and wait.

You already have thousands of DungeonTube subscribers and work for Wizards of the (bloody) Coast? Good for you. Want me to take you seriously regardless of what you’ve published? Make better career choices. Play stupid (LARP) games, get stupid experiences. Same thing goes for you, BOB!

So the depression is hitting pretty hard these days honestly.

It is what it is, as much as I hate that freakin phrase. I’m in the same boat as a handful of other guys on YouTube and all-over social media. I’m not in either OSR or 5.5E camp. Honestly both extremes are a bit much for me. Maybe it’s my various diagnosed and undiagnosed neurodiverse issues talking. I just feel like a man without a camp most days. I’m forever alone in whatever crowd I’m standing closest to.

It’s a good thing I enjoy solo roleplaying as much as I do. Just give me a good oracle and a few characters. It’s all fine and dandy. It’s all fine and dandy unless I’m at a convention. YouTube is kinda f’cked though.

I do YouTube for me at this point. I don’t know if it will ever get any kind of monetization going on there. I guess I’m just too determined to keep putting out videos. I don’t think Chin Pecker Maps (whatever it’s called) or anyone from that talent agency will ever be banging down my doors for sponsored ad space.

Rest assured, you belong here.

If you’re breathing air and you’re still with me at this point, you belong here. I want to get back to talking about games instead of real-world politics and religion. I would rather serve an audience that wants to hear weird world building takes or about some kooky Dragonbane monster I cooked up. I’d rather talk about the fun stuff instead of what dumb thing Wizards of the Coast did this time and what we can learn from it. Let’s talk about Dragonbane, Twilight Sword, mallards, cat folk, monsters, traps, treasure, locations, quests and maybe even some unrelated superhero stuff.

I want to start working on cyberpunk/mecha stuff again. I realized the other day how much I miss the cyberpunk genre specifically. Plus I still have that cool idea for a space game floating about just waiting for some love. It doesn’t always have to be about elves with sticks, although if you thought the fantasy crowd was rough… Try finding players for a cyberpunk/mecha game sometime.

Regardless, thanks for being here. This month has been crazy. A couple of guys on YouTube gave me a lot to think about. Shout out to King Waspinator over at Total Party Skills and Grim Jim. I also have to mention the Boss, The OG GM as always because he gives me a lot to think about, too. Hopefully your weekend is going well. Here’s to October always being good for a laugh or two.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!

TTRPGs, the Cottage Industry.

Something I’ve said for years and it’s coming around on social discourse.

Okay, slight suspension of disbelief first. Forget Hasbro and Games Workshop exist, along with the handful of Hasbro’s pawns. (Paizo, Kobold Press, Renegade Game Studios, Ghostfire Gaming, and about half the stuff on D&D Beyond.) Let’s also disregard Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu.) Most of the rest of the TTRPG “Industry” as much as I hate to admit it, is often a lone operator or a small crew of people putting out a game line or two.

I now contend it’s more of a craft industry, at least from where I’m standing. It’s on me to create the product, edit it, lay it out, find/make art for it, and eventually take my product to market. DriveThruRPG is the only sort of middle agent involved. Then I have to market, advertise, pray, and possibly pay taxes. Fortunately I haven’t generated enough revenue to worry about the last part.

A true cottage industry has multiple households creating goods for a receiving agent as they did prior to the days of industrialization. We still see some situations like that today where people work freelance from home on various TTRPG offerings, usually for DMsGuild or even a game company from what we hear. The line between freelancer and independent artisan are blurry sometimes.

The next step up is similar to gainful employment.

There are a few people out there in the TTRPG industry who do creative work for a bona fide game company. It might still be run out of someone’s living room or garage, but it’s more of a legitimate endeavor. I’m thinking along the lines of people who have enjoyed hundreds of thousands of dollars or more on Kickstarter, but don’t have the office space or warehouse for their products.

Then from there I imagine the dream is a working office/warehouse space with something resembling a staff possibly. I don’t know if anyone would call it “living the dream,” but it is how a lot of TTRPG companies grew from a photocopy of the rules to full on production. The only difference nowadays is digital products and print-on-demand have made life slightly easier.

“You’ll never get rich selling games, kid.”

I’ve talked about this before and I think it’s starting to become clearer to me. Maybe there is some truth to it. Maybe my dream of making a comfortable living or at least steadily paying for my hobby using what I bring in on my own meager offerings is just that: a dream. I don’t know any more. I know a lot of the “greats” in the industry are still just barely getting by or minimally not living solely based on their TTRPG income.

The same can be said about YouTube. The creators who are making money, especially on the TTRPG end, are channels with 100K+ followers across multiple platforms. I noticed that Chimp-Peck-You maps or whatever the name is won’t touch anyone under 10K subscribers or 35K consistent views. (Yes I know what the real name is and who their talent agency is, too.) No one is breaking down my door to drop off a $5,000 custom wooden gaming table, either. But I’m not bitter…

YouTube is only going to get harder next year when the monetization requirements go from 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours to 8,000 watch hours. I’ll be surprised if they don’t up the subscriber counts eventually. It’s the age-old tale of the rich get richer, and the poor get screwed on YouTube.

The TTRPG industry as it is really isn’t much better than YouTube. Small independent creators only have so many options without getting rich on their own (Arcane Library) or getting picked up by one of the big companies like Hasbro. A lucky few might get to cut a deal with a small company like Monte Cook Games or Chaosium. Even then such deals are few and far between especially with the economy in shambles.

When does it go back to just being a hobby?

I’ve asked myself that question a couple of times recently. I don’t think I can ever go back to just being a GM for fun. I’m always going to want to tinker with rules; publish an add-on; make a new monster for people to tinker with; write an article; make a video; and so on. I don’t know if I can ever stop.

Making money is secondary to all the joy creating things brings me. Or at least that’s what I tell myself to keep going. I don’t think anything outside of my family means quite as much to me as gaming has over the years.

I tried for a while to just write some ICONS solo fiction just for me, but it rapidly grew back into exploring other games and systems. Pretty soon I started looking into opening licensing things again. Hi. Here we are, a dozen years later and I’m back to tinkering.

It’s just in my blood; I guess.

A project I started clear back in my D&D 3.5 era has been dragged through two editions of D&D and several other games. Now I’m working on a version of it for Dragonbane. At the rate we’re going I’ll be releasing it for Ruttigers or something. Who knows? It’s one of a handful of titles that I’ve been creating for years or at least conceptualizing this whole time.

Before that it was some things I had come up with for Big Eyes, Small Mouth that I never got to print. I’d also like to be the guy to resurrect Marauder 2107 and Roadstriker 2, but it probably won’t ever happen. Yes, I’m openly a sad little otaku who is more into the TTRPG end of anime. A guy can dream; I guess.

I can dream.

There have been a couple of content creators that I look up to on YouTube lately who have stated what a shitshow the industry and even the hobby itself has become lately. I’m not giving up on the blog, YouTube, DriveThruRPG, or the hobby any time soon. Just because one well-known, overly hyped game is going down the tubes fast, doesn’t mean the rest of us aren’t still out here in the struggle.

Sure, the YouTube algorithm is only favoring the Ginny Di’s of the world. Sure, Hasbro/WotC and all their puppet companies are “at the top” of the industry right now. We don’t need them. We never really did.

As long as I can still be a kid with a game, a photocopier (or digital these days,) and a dream- then by Universe, I ain’t going anywhere. Maybe I won’t be able to pass a gaming empire on to my kids someday. They’ll understand. I’m still doing what I love and nothing is going to change that.