I just finished So You Want To Be a Game Master by Justin Alexander, and I guess I am now a Game Master. Well, practically speaking, I already was, because 18 May I ran my first session (with a dungeon from the book) and that was the first of the seven sessions I ran since then. Most of the sessions were in the ever so popular Dungeons & Dragons, but one of them was Pirate Borg.

And I love it. Long time followers of this blog know that 12 years ago, I was deeply into creative writing. Since then, it kind of waned, as I found the game of Go and other hobbies, as well as a job that made me write code all day. More recently, through a Go summer camp, I discovered other boardgames, the Boardgayming Amsterdam community and through that I got into D&D again.[^1]

What I love about it, is that it brings together the storytelling of creative writing, with the mathematics and execution paths of coding, but also just the general social experience of an evening with friends. I even picked up my drawing a bit, albeit mostly for maps.

I still like boardgames, but diving into the RPG-space taught me also a bit more about what I like about those: the story that you tell at the table. Sure, I like to win,[^2] but I am really only able to withstand six hours of Risk because of the epic story that unfolds on the battlefield. Or in my more recently played games: I like to be a member of a house in Night of the Ninja, to be a circus owner in SCOUT, or a radio officer in Captain Sonar.

My next goal is to actually start a campaign, as my seven one-shots are not really sustainable in the long run (so much preparation proportional to the game time). And the general goal is to just get better at improvising at the table, to just go with the flow of where-ever the players want to go. And maybe a subgoal is to write about my progress from time to time here.

It's great to be back in language.

[^1]: Again, because pre-covid I actually played in a campaign as a player, thanks to Mike, Luuk and the others.
[^2]: I wrote about wanting to win in another blogpost.