Monday Musings #113 🤬
Musings on a few CRPGS, and the End of Summer Break.
Good Monday, Gamer!
“Wake up! Wake up! C’mon, first day of school!” ― Nemo
School’s In, Games Are Back!
School’s back in session this week, and somehow summer break just evaporated.
We got a ton of new board and card games played, and while not all the mecha TTRPGs played, that’s still ongoing. I thought maybe our Household campaign had run out of gas—turns out it just lost out to the chaos of summer. Household is back on the menu! (Pretty sure I owe Two Little Mice a little more cash.)
Flying Circus had a bye week on Sunday—life schedules caught up with us, but it was nice just to catch up and chat a little with folks. And Mythic Bastionland returns! Thomas, Judd, and I are lining up a new three-session arc with young knights, and I honestly can’t say which of us is most amped to dive back in.
Coming up, I’ll be joining Rich Rogers in September for his MCU Sundays run of M.A.C.E. Corps (a PBTA/FitD mashup), and I’m cooking up something new with the folks at Unconventional GMs.
I mostly play video games on Xbox, sometimes on Steam. CRPGs don’t often stick with me; here are the outliers.
EVE Online – A sprawling, player-driven space MMO where corporations rise and fall, fleets clash in massive (and INFAMOUS) battles, and the economy is run almost entirely by players. It’s less about “fun” and more about immersion, risk, and the high-stakes pursuit of power, ships, and survival. I’ve got characters old enough to drink this year. I haven’t played in a while, but I don’t think I’ve ever quit EVE. It’s not fun, exactly—it’s sticky. It’s dopamine on tap: the next ship, the next upgrade, the next hustle. GO!
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – An open-world action RPG set in Tolkien’s world. Its standout Nemesis System ensures that enemies remember your past encounters, growing stronger and more personal with every defeat or victory. The Nemesis System is genius. Every time you die, the orcs who were there level up and remember you. Early on, I “promoted” a lot of orcs this way. One, Horzah, haunted me—showing up again and again until I finally got the mission that let me retire him. That turned into a lost three-day weekend chasing Horzah across Mordor. Would Do Again!
Elden Ring – FromSoftware’s masterpiece blends punishing combat with a vast, mysterious open world. Part Souls-like challenge, part exploration-driven wonder, it rewards curiosity as much as skill. I’m not a Souls-like player, but I loved exploring this world. I didn’t get far enough to beat Margit, the Fell Omen—the gatekeeper to the main plot—but that’s fine. My joy was in wandering, poking into corners, and finding out what’s happening around the next bend, lake, or haunted ruins.
Anthem – A cooperative, mech-suit action RPG where players take on the role of Freelancers piloting customizable Javelins. While its launch was rocky, it delivered fun flight, combat, and shared exploration. Maybe I loved this one because it was one of the first games my kid and I played together. Maybe it was the mechs. Maybe both. My personal experience was great, even if the larger community had issues. We finished the main story, hung out in the endgame, and squeezed every last drop out of what was there. Anthem’s servers are shutting down in January 2026, no sequel—but I got my shards’ worth.
The Through Line
What ties all of these games together for me isn’t genre—it’s engagement.
EVE: chasing the next ship or upgrade.
Mordor: trying to fix the top-heavy orc management problem I created.
Elden Ring: exploring every hidden corner.
Anthem: investing in the story and the shared play experience with my kid.
Each game let me decide what winning looked like. That sense of open engagement is exactly what I look for in TTRPGs, whether I’m a player or facilitator. Where’s the engagement? What am I chasing? Where’s the dopamine hit?
ICYMI
Need artists for your TTRPG? AlderDoodle’s gotcha covered!
Read Judd’s recap for our Mythic Bastionland sessions. Once Upon a Time…
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