A Research Jackpot
Hello Friends. Welcome back to my rambling.
Stop me if you've heard this one. You're starting a new hobby or project and are super excited. So, in your manic state you go on a shopping spree buying everything you need to get started. Then, you start doing the hobby, you're enjoying yourself, and want to learn even more about it.
Then, inevitably, you come across a treasure trove of DIY things you can do to do your hobby, but for cheap. Often times without the things you literally just bought for your hobby!
This is where I am in my TTRPG journey.
You see, I have definitely caught the TTRPG bug. Apparently Land of Eem was my gateway drug of choice. Buying the deluxe box set and actually playing that game with my kids got me excited for playing every week. And now my kids want to play Dungeons and Dragons as well.
So, I went onto Drivethrurpg.com and grabbed the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. Prepare to get even more proof of my impulsivity.
It turns out the version I bought was specific to a Virtual Table Top (VTT) called Roll20. That platform is actually pretty cool, but if I want to access my document, I need internet access. Obviously not ideal, but I'm too stubborn to try to get a refund, and I don't want to spring for the physical book. So, I'm living with that mistake.
One day I went down yet another YouTube rabbit hole regarding Game Mastering. One of the fun YouTubers to watch in the TTRPG sphere is Ginny Di. She's funny, and does a good job of breaking things down.
Anyway, she did a video about how D&D is free actually.
In the video she goes over the Dungeons and Dragons System Reference Document, which is the basic rules and monsters you would need to create and publish your own D&D adventures. Yes, D&D has a somewhat open source component! And it's more than enough to run your own games without ever purchasing a single book.
This was my "Aha!" moment. If D&D has a SRD, do other systems have that too? And sure enough, many of them do (including my beloved Land of Eem!)
"But what does this have to do with you making your own TTRPG?" you may ask.
First off, thank you for remembering the thesis of my humble blog dear reader. You're the best!
Secondly, this means I don't need to buy (or, "acquire") heaps of physical books or PDFs to do dig into other systems. If the system has a SRD, I can legally grab that and dig into the system to learn.
Yes, I know libraries exist, but I'm lazy and want to have the document to refer to later for either writing purposes or just simply playing.
So now I have a few SRDs to scour through and compare how the systems compare to each other, and use that knowledge to figure out which would fit my game the way I want it to.
Also, getting more TTRPGs to try is never a bad thing, right? Right??