On January 10th, 2010 I thought I should start one of those blog things. Not because I need to be heard, but I had a lot of thoughts on Table Top RPGs, and the running thereof, and I wanted a place to jot them down. The blog started on Live Journal under the name "Art of Gaming." Not the most original name, sure, but it worked for me.
About a week later, maybe two, I figured I'd move to blogger instead of live journal. I don't know why, but it involved being able to get my own domain name. Only, as you may have guessed, Art of Gaming is a pretty common name for things game related - and there are a lot of game related things out there. After racking my brain for a while I came up with a name that even now I'm pretty fond of: Reality Refracted.
To me that name is what gaming, and story telling, is all about. They're refractions of reality. Not necessarily reflections, but with qualities of reflection. Things can be bigger, smaller, more epic, more powerful, more zany, but at the core they're still refractions of a single core concept: reality. Maybe that's too artsy and philosophical for a blog where I tell you to talk to your players before one shotting them with an off screen sniper, but I like it.
Some of you seem to enjoy it too, and that's awesome. The past six years have been a lot of fun on here. I made friends with the ever awesome Jason Richards, and though we don't talk or share emails much anymore I'm always super happy when I see him making progress on his own dreams. I've found some people who regularly come by and visit or comment on the blog, and there are at least 70 of you who cared enough to subscribe. That's pretty awesome.
Hell, a random post on here got me contacted by Evil Hat to see if I'd do a review on their newest supplement for Dresden Files: The Paranet Papers. A review I have yet to deliver on (soon, I promise.)
It's been fun. And after saying all that, this reads like a goodbye. Fun thing is, it's not a goodbye.
Keeping to broadstrokes as I do, going for universal application as I try, I see cycles in my posts here. That's ok though. Sometimes concepts come back up. I still have things I want to do on the blog, and there are always more series that can be done - or posts with themes that can be written. If nothing else, I have to keep this going until GenCon so I can whine about being under prepared foot wise for the third year in a row, right?
Anyhow, I just want to take the moment to say thank you for reading. Thank you for the questions. Also, it's pretty cool to have been doing this for 6 years. Before this blog I don't think I'd done anything for that long, so let's see how far it goes.
I hope everyone is enjoying their New Year so far. Let's make 2016 one to remember.
I discovered your blog in 2013, and I recall a similar post you made then of having kept up the blog for those three solid years.
ReplyDeleteI had recently returned to gaming after a decades long hiatus & had jumped in with both feet, starting a bi-weekly campaign with mainly strangers & maintaining a comprehensive campaign website on Obsidian Portal.
The campaign is now almost three years old, with just one original player, one almost-original player (every campaign should have such rock solid anchors), the same comprehensive campaign website and many good roleplaying memories. We now play over Roll20 - for various reasons, but the convenience alone is just a force that could not forever be ignored.
For the first 12-18 months after discovering RR I was a hardcore reader. Hardcore in the sense that, if I wasn't your top comment'er in that time, I was a top competitor. I remember it knocking me back a bit when you announced that you would no longer be trying to post every day. Whaaaaat?? I also guest-blogged with you a time or two.
Now my RR reading is sporadic, but the blog's as good as ever...and, hey, you were my first! Congrats on six years, that's very impressive.
Well, I am glad you are still out there writing interesting things on gaming. Keeping a blog going can be a lot of work, so, well done on making it this far! And here is to many more years.
ReplyDeleteI've only found your blog in the last two and a half years, but i really enjoyed reading your post and appreciate your perspective on the hobby. (Especially the artsy and philosophical bits.)
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