PHEW. It has been an INSANE month. February is the month of love, and I'd like to say I got tonnes of it. Thank you. For reading this blog and my rants, for choosing my games to play in. It's been three months since Fried Dice went OFFICIAL, and it's been one hell of a ride.

The Breakdown of Feb (In-person games)

Every month, for in-person games (join the telegram here), I announce a new system that I've studied to run, and I also announce a new module for an existing system that I already run. Avatar was relatively popular in January along with the custom Garden of Rust module for Break!! RPG, and in February, the release was Charm Person (a game I wrote) as the new system and Scooby Doo: Dragon of the Forbidden Mountain as a one-shot. Charm Person was a pleasant surprised - all the players who played in it said that it had the vibes of Stewpot and Firebrands, but with a stronger dating element to it. I feel like it has room for development, but I know my brain is gonna forget about it until Valentine's next year.

I still have regular games, some of them have been playing in campaigns for 3 or more years, and I'm eternally blessed. Some players who have been playing random campaigns and one-shots with me too for over 3 years! How time passes so quickly.

In March, we're going to play Brambletrek and (INSERT ONE-SHOT HERE, to be announced mid-march!). Brambletrek is another cozy game, a la Stewpot, Wanderhome, and Ryuutama. I specifically have ordered the Through the Hundred Acre Wood expansion, and am currently waiting for the physical copy to arrive. I announce a monthly poll for in-person games in our telegram group, and send out a vote based on what games I'm ready/going to be ready to run. It's a great opportunity to keep my brain fresh on mechanics, and not just drown in D&D. If you have any suggestions for games to learn and play, let me know! I'm always looking for unique mechanics, vibes, and flavors to level up my GMing skills.

In the upcoming months, I have my eye on Sword World, more Break!!, the Big Bad's Bundle. I also have signed up for the Havok Engine game jam, and wanna finish something substantial! I doubt I'll win anything, but it's an excuse to finish the game I have been working on for over a year.

Overall, the month of love has given me nothing but love, and I heard that it's a great year for Roosters (for those who like the Chinese Zodiac, I'm a roosterrrr). Totally expecting more good things to happen.

Getting Sick (Twice) Taught Me Something

I got sick like TWICE, and I totally blame the Lunar New Year period; people are getting sick and visiting, and still meeting up, getting more people sick, and so on so forth. I got sick right before, and right after. Thankfully, the timings of the illnesses have been around the online games sprints, so I don't feel too shabby, and I didn't have to cancel any of my in-person games. Online games do take up less physical bandwidth than in-person games, and it's easier to hide that I'm unwell haha. Please take care of yourselves.

As long as my voice isn't gone, I've still been able to run games at an (albeit less than optimal) acceptable level. I still managed to get some reviews on SPG, and the people are quite kind. If anything, as I maintained quality, a player mentioned "if this is how it is when you're less than top form, then it has to be even better when you are!" (paraphasing this of course). I'm a huge imposter syndrome guy, so words like these are really motivating and are moments that I try to save in my brain to combat said imposter syndrome. 

How did I feel? Before games, like crap. I felt like my brain was slower, and I couldn't remember all the details. I had to dig and rush around for maps. During games however, I FREAKING LOCKED IN. Voices, pictures, pulling up notes. I definitely was a little slower than when I'm well, but I didn't feel the "stress" other than the usual stuff. I only got frustrated during cough attacks, but it never lasts more than a couple of seconds. Then after games, I feel like crap again, but that's fine, 'cause I can rest. I think I get more annoyed that I can't work on auxiliary stuff like new emotes, MOAR blog posts, and session prep.  

What's Coming Up? (and online games updates)

On Startplaying games, I'd like to post more one-shots (like Murders at Karlov Manor, and the Scooby Doo murder mystery). I'm still debating on running alternative systems (I did run one Charm Person game, but it was purely for people who were already in my games). If you're new here, that's perfect - I'm planning on running a variety of learn to play one-shots. I've released my standard "Choose from 3!" learn to play, but I've already prepared two (YES, NOT ONE BUT TWO) murder mystery style learn to play/beginner one-shots. I've also released my Learn-to-play campaign, which is my version of Lost Mine of Phandelver, the classic D&D starter adventure. If none of those slots work, let me know! I've got quite a few availabilities, but SPG only allows 20 posts max at a time (for good reason!).

Online, I'm blessed to have 4 campaign groups (and maybe 1 or 2 that are almost there!), and ran quite a few learn to play one-shots. I love these groups - having read horror stories on Reddit, online groups are often make it or break it groups, and everyone so far has been great. The people are extremely agreeable, and genuinely just wanna have a good time. Only thing I can say is appreciate players like these. They are the people who will bring life to this hobby, not just in my games, but in anyone's games that they are in. This means that every single new person who meets these players will fall in love with the game a little bit more too, because of their positive attitudes and personalities. 

Things I'm Learning

Firstly, prep is easier when the game is tomorrow. I think this is in line with my philosophy that the most important game is the next game. I had a huge sprint of daily games from 18th Feb through 4th March, and it was very doable. On the 17th of March, I prepped games backwards (the later games first, then the nearer games), and I definitely took way longer than I needed to to prep. Would a prep blog post make sense (added to list of blog posts to write)

Secondly, catalogues and organization saves lives. HERE'S A BIGGY, I had a Curse of Strahd Campaign start on my Tuesday (the players Monday, as they are in the west), and we hit enough players on the Sunday before. I barely just had enough time to squeeze in and prep the Virtual Tabletop and session 0 documentation. It was enough time only because I had my files and links organized. This includes prepping for the game I had on the Monday. Notion and folder management are key. I know quite a few people who do not like Notion anymore, much preferring Obsidian, and... I kinda agree. Don't be like me. Start on Obsidian if you're starting a new campaign. I'm too lazy to move content.

Third, systems help. Being able to have stopped thinking rapidly and just do helps with running more games. I'm always looking for the next thing to try in games - new accents, new rules, old rules that I never really used, and old campaigns that I had run long ago, but have forgotten enough to run again (Curse of Strahd again). 

TL;DR of it all

I'll have run 41 games in February, totaling at 68 (😅) games for this year. This is almost half of all the games run last year, and March is looking even busier! This is looking to be a good start to the year, and if this increase in games is maintained, it would be safe to say that I could run games basically indefinitely and sustainably. A safe number would be the 50 to 60 mark a month, and when I hit that, I'll definitely re-think how many I could handle - perhaps my systems become so refined that I can run even more! 50 to 60 means that I can dedicate more resources to a) making more art, b) buying more animated maps and tokens, c) making custom music, and d) buying more TTRPGs and supplements so that I can run more games! Sounds like a lot, but I think this is the feasible amount in order to create something sustainable. While I do wish I ran just one less or one more game this month, I'm perfectly content with what has been achieved so far.

Quick Spotlight

Just wanted to say thanks to the players who explicitly told me what I'm doing well. It's good reinforcement, and as I mentioned earlier, I totally have imposter syndrome as a Game Master. It's your words and your appreciation that keep me running games! I also want to say, I appreciate you, and thanks for being an amazing player.

Thanks for reading and hanging out. I really would have never expected to have this massive of a player base under my belt, and in 2017, I would've scoffed at this being a legit way of living. Take care of yourselves, and see you in games. Who's awesome? You're awesome.

p.s. Happy International Game Master Day~