I love TTRPGs so put another die on the table baby!

Now then, I have something to say and I want to say it LOUD and PROUD!

I know who I am and I know what I like. And I like, actually I love, playing tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs).

What are table-top role-playing games? Well, you will all have heard of Dungeons & Dragons even if you’re not a geek. It has been bought into the mainstream by Stranger Things and there’s even a movie about it out now.

But as much as I like being in a band of adventurers, hanging out in the inn waiting to find out about my next mission and attempting to kill a gelantinous cube down a dark dungeon, I actually prefer other TTRPG to D & D and these days there are lots of different worlds and characters you can inhabit.

Now, before I tell you about all the wonderful things you can pretend to be in the comfort of your own chair sitting around a table with a coffee and a Twix, let me outline what TTRPG-ing is all about.

For a start it doesn’t involve dressing up (unless you want to), it doesn’t involve running around, it doesn’t require you to have a BTEC in Performing Arts, it doesn’t have to go on for ever and ever, it doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby and it doesn’t require you to learn lots and lots of rules if you are a player.

It does require you to be friendly and personable, having a good imagination helps, enjoying trying new things and meeting new people is important and having a few free hours now and again is useful.

Take this Saturday afternoon for example. I went along to a one day board game convention in North London called Twincon. It only cost me a fiver to get in and play as many TTRPGS as time would allow. It took me 20 minutes to drive from my house to the venue. I then met a splendid group of fellow TTRPGers - none of whom I had met before - and I spent about 2 and half hours having a brilliant time in their company. Instead of doing the dishes, the washing and cleaning the cat tray? Result!

We played a Call of Cthulhu themed TTRPG called Lampposts In Bloom.

Call of Cthulhu? It’s a horror story written by H. P. Lovecraft and set in 1920s America about the discovery of a cult who worship ‘the Old Ones’ whose leader is a monstrous creature called Cthulhu. The story explores the idea that humanity is incapable of dealing with forces greater than their own, and is insignificant when compared to the vast universe and the creatures that dwell within it. There are a plethora of Cthulhu influenced board games and RPGs - ours was set in modern times in ‘any small town in the south of England’.

My pre-generated character (i.e. I didn’t have to spend hours creating her and working out all her strengths and weaknesses as this was all done for me) was called Evelyn, she was a 32 yo psychiatric nurse with a sister and a husband and a few secrets. The GM (or games master) was a brilliant role-player called Robin who set the scene, progressed the story, decided when we needed to roll our dice (e.g. in CoC you have to deduct points for insanity every so often) and also played the part of Richard, my other half.

No spoilers here but the narrative combined the mundane with some fantastically chilling horror story twists and turns and it was BRILLIANT!

I have to say as I have an over-active imagination, can completely immerse myself in the character I am playing and am old enough and lived enough to not be shy in these circumstances, I threw myself into the game hook, line and scary plot twist and much fun was had!

In fact, as we all had so much fun, we then spent a further half an hour after the end of the game chatting about ourselves and the TTRPGs we had played over time and how great it was to be a geek etc etc!

In summary, it was the highlight of my weekend and took me away from the boring and the stressful elements of my day. I met some lovely people (I have found that other TTRPGers are gentle, intelligent and kind!) There was absolutely no small talk about the weather, work or what our pets/kids/other halves have been up to lately and I left the venue with a well massaged brain and an enormous smile on my face. I mean, seriously, what is there not to like??

If you want to meet some interesting people, do something really fun, try something new and just escape the day to day for a few hours, you could do worse than play a TTRPG.

There are TTRPGs set in the wild west, different eras including Victorian Sweden or some Cyberpunk Futuristic dystopia; you can be a Stranger Things like kid on a bike or a WW1 soldier or spy, a 1930s American investigator, part of a crew of bold explorers in an Alien themed setting….it really isn’t all about dungeons, dragons or long campaigns I assure you!

So, leave the chores for a few hours, free your imagination and that inner child and allow yourself to have some fun. Go play a TTRPG. You won’t regret it.