It’s a short post today. Hopefully it will explain why I’ve been so off lately

Not a Player’s Perspective

As I’ve gone back and looked at The Player’s Perspective portion of Dump Stat, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t much advice to those on the player side of the DM screen. Originally I thought it would be fun to do as a counter to the number of sites, this one included, that give GM advice. Problem is, players don’t want advice….they want free cool toys to look at like homebrew feats, subclasses based on comic book characters and how to convert an ogre into a mount for your gnome.

It’s funny to me that GM’s are always looking for advice, with some coming across as needy and insecure (go look at Reddit or Twitter if you doubt that statement). These are the people that run your game, control the world and can kill your beloved character with a snap of their fingers. A good GM is humble enough to reach out for help and acknowledge that, while they know everything about the world your campaign is in, they don’t know everything about D&D.

Players, on the other hand, are an overconfident group of asshats. Making oneself into a better player doesn’t mean talking to others, including those in your party. It means playing the coolest homebrew out there. It’s taking advantage of every rule loophole not discussed in session 0. It means making your character so OP that the party is ridiculously unbalanced, whereupon you blame the GM for not providing them with a big enough challenge.

Based on the mini-rant above, here’s my player advice.

Have fun. Remember it’s a team game. Have fun.

If you don’t like the people you play with and aren’t having any fun, then why play? It’s mind numbingly simple, but we forget it all the time. Why do I feel it’s important to bring this up now?

Coming to Grips with Your Mortality.

First, let me thank Stephen for carrying the load these past few months. His articles and creations have been so fantastic and he’s picked up a lot of my responsibilities without missing a beat.

Last summer I was diagnosed with throat cancer. I’d been feeling tired for a while and after months of tests and biopsies, we found out why. Two surgeries and 5 weeks of daily radiation later, I find myself still having two more weeks of treatment and not dealing with it very well. I woefully underestimated how badly this would fuck me up and can’t even describe how much this sucks. I am (hopefully) going to be able to avoid chemotherapy, and my heart goes out to those that are going through it right now.

The world is a cruel and beautiful mistress. I have cleaned up my life over the past decade. I no longer do drugs, quit drinking, stopped smoking and have honestly tried to work on myself and help others in an attempt to be a better person. What I always joked was that I would never give up my last vice….food. I have no need to a line of coke, a drink at happy hour or a cigarette with my first cup of coffee, but life without butter, sugar, fats, oils, etc. would just too much to bear (I should note that pretty much every vice I have/had is directly linked to working in restaurants and kitchens for nearly 30 years).

Cancer has taken food away from me. Everything tastes like salt and I haven’t been able to eat solid food for the last two weeks. Radiation has destroyed my taste buds, saliva glands and weakened my ability to swallow. All of these should be temporary, but there are no guarantees. So while I try to look on the bright side, mentally reminding myself there’s only 15 treatments to go, no chemo, and everything so far is looking good, I have been going down the rabbit hole more often of late, wallowing in my little pity party. To my family & friends, I’m truly sorry.

So as long as things keep moving in this positive direction, I should be back up to speed in early 2020. Maybe then I can finish up the Equipment Pack series!

Discord

A brief comment on our discord channel. I am so glad we opened it to the public. We originally had it available to our Patreon members only but decided to open it up to everyone a couple of months ago. It was one of the smartest ideas Stephen has had to date.

We’ve met some cool and amazing people on our channel. I love reading about someone’s new homebrew. Discord is great since not only do you get to see the homebrew items, but discuss in great detail the thought process behind it. I’ve met some great artists who I hope to collaborate with, especially since I can’t draw stick figures. And it’s awesome to have people push and challenge us on our creations since it only makes the end product better.

If you’re interested in checking out our discord, the link banner is to the right and on the home page. If you know of any other great discord’s to check out, let me know!