Sunshine Blogger Award

I have been very kindly granted the Sunshine Blogger Award by my good pal xaosseed of the excellent Seed of Worlds blog. This is an award of "peer recognition to bloggers who bring positivity, joy, and creative content to the blogging world," in this case, granted to me for my Seven Part Pact review. Yay, thank you! I love peer recognition! And positivity, joy, and creative content! And the blogging world!

Xaosseed has prepared some questions for his other nominees and me to answer, then I nominate others and provide questions for them. Oh, what fun! I shall interview my friends.

The Rules

First, the rules, as taken from The Wonderful World of Cinema.

1. Include the Sunshine Blogger Awards somewhere on your blog and/or in the article
2. Thank the person who nominated you
3. Share the link to this person’s blog (it goes without saying)
4. Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.
5. Nominate up to 11 bloggers yourself.
6. Ask 11 questions to these bloggers.
7. Notify the bloggers by commenting on their blogs.

The Interview

Second, some answers to some questions by xaosseed.

1. Why do you write a blog anyway?

It's a challenge to myself. I want to see how far I can take this hobby. And I need an outlet for these little rambly rumbles rattling round my noggin. And I like connecting to the broader community within the hobby.

2. If you could persuade your readers of one thing, what would it be?

Play something else. Get outside of your comfort zone. Butt up against the mental walls that structure reality in your brain, and then burst through them. Feel lost, dazed, and amazed by what you discover there. I can't guarantee that it'll make you more moral, healthier, or more attractive, but it will certainly make you more interesting. And surely it's good for your sleep.

3. What is your favourite blog post out there and why?

It's not a single post, but I love the setting of Against the Wicked City. Central Asia is the most underappreciated font of inspiration for tabletop writing. Actually, I suppose I should mention one of the other posts on that blog, since I happen to be writing a game based on it: Local gods and the spiritual technology of rulership. Yes, that game is based on Mongolian history.

4. Other than writing a blog, what are your creative outlets these days?

My art (as seen throughout my posts)! My short story writing (which may become blog posts)! Working on a game (which I will talk about at some point on my blog)! And I GM regularly too. It's a lot.

5. What are your three favorite genres?

Romance, horror, intrigue. Not necessarily in that order. Despite the obvious and very loud caveats for potential mess, romance is great fun at a table. In the height of the pandemic, I ran a 5e dating simulator with 8 players and 30 dateable NPCs. I will never do that again. Mostly for logistical reasons. 

I hate horror in other kinds of media, but I love it in tabletop gaming. Probably because I can be a little bit more in control of the situation. The very rare times I watch something horror-adjacent, I'll repeatedly hit pause to let myself calm down. But I sail on through with horror tabletop games.

Political intrigue is only satisfying if the GM has a good mental mockup of how politics works, and I tend to be pretty discerning about who I think does have that good mental mockup, so it's mostly just me running intrigue stuff. If we define intrigue a little more broadly, I do love a good heist, and I'm a sucker for Bond-style action. I don't want to sit through a war game, but I'm perfectly happy to be well dressed in a chase scene. 

6. What has been your most enjoyable game played recently?

Sage ran Rōnin for us last week, and I was obsessed. I LOVE MÖRK BORG AND MÖRK BORG-INSPIRED GAMES. I LOVE PRETTY BOOKS WHERE I'M LIABLE TO DIE. I LOVE HAVING SHITTY MODIFIERS AND HAVING TO TRACK FOOD. I LOVE WRITING HAIKUS TO REPLENISH MY SEMI-META-CURRENCY. I LOVE BEING DISHONORABLE. Also did I mention the book is gorgeous? Ugh.

7. What have been your greatest lessons learned around gaming?

Distribute the work and mental load. Ultimately, this is a hobby, and it should not all fall on one person's shoulders to manage scheduling, note-keeping, morale boosting, whatever. Let the GM show up and run things, and let everyone else handle the rest. And play with other GMs. No player will be as motivated to do all this as another GM who knows how much work it is and will appreciate your effort. And being around other GMs is the best! They're the best cheerleaders, advice givers, conversationalists, inspirations, creative partners, rules reference guides, and roleplayers.

(Gentle) bullying works! I only started GMing because someone on a D&D server I was on made me put my money where my mouth was and actually GM. Now I'm doing the same to my own friends. The cycle of violence continues.

Perhaps a bit of a sordid lesson, but drama is best solved before it happens. This hobby is full of all kinds of people, and plenty of them will not be a good fit for your game or your table. So be discerning at the beginning when you're getting to know people so you can relax during your actual time spent together.

Any time you're playing with a new group or playing a game with difficult themes, use lines and veils and X-cards. Once trust and familiarity are built up, you don't always need something structured, but I have had two different instances as a GM where, had I not asked, I would have accidentally put my new players in difficult or uncomfortable situations. We've all lived different lives, and you won't know how people feel about things until you ask.

8. What tips would you offer to someone starting out blogging?

I don't think I'm particularly qualified to give blogging advice. RSS feeds are good, so if you're picking a blog hosting platform, make sure it can handle RSS.

9. If you were introducing someone to TTRPGs, how would you do so?

My stripped-down rules-lite hack of that Most Popular System That We All Have Such Strong Opinions About. My version is classless and involves magical tattoos and cultists. I've run it like 5 times at this point? Maybe I'll publish it sometime. 

10. You get a new edition or expansion to any game you like, what would you want & why?

I am frothing at the mouth waiting for the next edition of Veins of the Earth. For those not in the know, it is the Best Ever cave/underground setting. It is not available for sale anymore, but I have the PDF and would be thrilled to get my grubby little paws on the physical edition at some point. Good things come to those who wait.

11. Describe your impossible dream of a campaign.

Not really a big campaign person at the moment, but if we're daydreaming, I'd love to disappear off into a castle in Hungary with Vienna Supergroup friends of mine for a weekend of uninterrupted gaming. Probably to play Seven Part Pact or Blades 68. God, I love Blades 68. 

My Awardees

Third, the people I nominate for this cute lil award!

1. Letters from Tre Kronor - for their poetry and writing about Jared Diamond

2. MixUpPixels - for his retrospectives about Fight or Fright

3. Crow's Corner - for her writing about safety tools

4. Sage's Sanctum - for her writing about expanding the possibility space

5. 5th Dimensional Tavern - because he owes me a blog post

6. Richard's Dystopian Pokeverse - (I know he's probably too busy with real life right now to do this but I'll shout him out anyway) for his writing about architectural history

7. Jubal at Exilian - for his writing about how to think about history in game development

8. enjoying the postapocalypse - for their review of Crucible

9. George Patterson - for publishing his adventure!

10. Son of Sun Tzu - for this round-up of interesting games

Round of applause for these cool cats!

My Questions for Them

And finally, here are their interview questions! Most of you are game designers, but for the one or two who aren't, just disregard the game design-related questions. 

1. If you were being asked to write a guest post for a different blog, who would you want to write for and what about?

2. How do you measure or conceptualize success with your blogging? What does success look like or feel like for you?

3. How do you decide what you're going to write about?

4. What's your favorite tabletop system you've played or read recently?

5. What unusual or fun source of inspiration have you recently absorbed/are you currently toying with?

6. What game are you working on at the moment? Any anticipated release estimates?

7. If you weren't blogging, what other outlet would you use instead?

8. What game are you most excited to play in 2026?

9. Who is your dream table of playtesters?

10. If you could be sent back in time (with appropriate clothing and gear), where would you most like to visit?

11. If you were a regular person in a medieval village (a.k.a. not nobility), what job or profession would you have based on your personality and interests?