Monday Musings #8

Exploring Caves of Qud, sandboxes and Ramen!

Good Monday, adventurers

Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash

You can catch up on a lot of reading and media when you're sick! I also consume a ton of ramen while sick. There’s a TON of variety out there, so I grab several different brands. Only happens when I’ve got a cold. 🤷🏾‍♂️

I've been reading through Muster, mostly out of curiosity. For all its war game roots, today's roleplaying games deliver a HUGE universe of experiences beyond that. I'm here for it. Sandbox gaming has occupied my brain. Reading Muster was another rabbit hole to go down. Muster exposes the game loop of the early years. Large groups, multiple characters, and a scorecard of sorts. These are useful for what we call open-table sandbox games today. Not so much for our more serial, episodic adventures focused on protagonists.

Caves of Qud is another rabbit hole. A Sci-fantasy RPG, I’ve spent countless hours of playtime over the years, and I still have those WTF moments! Nothing like having half the town chase you across the world! These days I play with my DM/software engineer hats on. I enjoy the sandbox feel of the game. I play it in 'rogue-like' mode, making me less attached to the character and more likely to take chances. Those chances lead to new discoveries! This is all inspirational as I construct prototypes for my "Wizard Time" video game. I want that sandbox experience.

Dollars and Dragons #31 has an outstanding interview with James D'Amato from the OneShot Podcast Network. Friday and James go pretty deep into the business of podcasting, Patreon, and passive income. Definitely worth a listen.

It will be catch-up time for the games I missed last week. I'm running Champions Now and Twilight: 2000. I'm a player in Conan 2D20 and Classic Traveller. And there’s prep work for my Neverwinter campaign on StartPlaying.games, I recently discovered Manitcores!

Catch ya in a week