Month / December 2024

by guyeatsfood

2024 Retrospective – Five of the Best

Readers, 2024 has been a good year for the blog – both in terms of me keeping to a (fairly) consistent posting schedule of weekly-ish, and in terms of raw stats. When I started this I was sure I wouldn’t look at visitor stats, but you quickly begin to pay them some mind – and 2024 already has a +54% increase on Views so far. And the help of numerous Patreon supporters, of course, helps pay hosting fees and keep me churning out content!

What’s this from? Well, see previous comment about posting more regularly; and also, as Unconventional GMs has developed, there’s been a useful synergy in producing two kinds of content. There’s more to be done there, I’m sure, but it’s helped me keep my gaming mojo warm throughout the year, even through holiday seasons when it can be hard to get a group together. I’m hopeful that the gaming community’s adoption of BlueSky will make it easier to promote things like this, as well.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

No Such Thing As An Overshare – Breaking down Player and Character Knowledge

We can play TTRPG games better now. We don’t need to take a player aside into another room to share some secret knowledge with them. We don’t need to roll in secret behind a screen. Our players can happily separate player and character knowledge, without taking advantage – and enjoy both sides of the curtain. 

We don’t need to pass notes at the table any more.

So, given that player and character knowledge is often useful to know at the same time (and we’re comfortable with author and actor stance being occupied simultaneously) – why not break down some more barriers? Here are some ideas that I’ve gathered and tried

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Continue reading →
by guyeatsfood

You Don’t Have to Like Everything

I’ve been sick this past week. Nothing too major, just ongoing stuff that I should have sorted ages ago, mostly just requiring a full stop, and resting. My recovery period (and subsequent not being in work) has coincided with the explosion of BlueSky as a place where a lot of gaming chat happens – it’s finally overtaken twitter and seems to be becoming the major place for short-form TTRPG discussion, memes, and general bantz. Which of course has led to me spending a lot of time on my phone scrolling through feeds and being barely entertained by gaming “discussion.”

And with it, there’s been an opportunity to practise good social media management, for many of us starting from scratch the way we wished we started on twitter. And subsequent accusations of BlueSky being an echo chamber, and a few of the bad actors from twitter trying to make their way across.

So it’s a good time to remind myself, and you, that a useful approach with gaming social media is to remember that you don’t have to like everything. In fact, you might like things that some other people think are terrible, and you might dislike things that other people think are good. And that’s fine; even (especially) in TTRPGs.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Continue reading →