Yesterday, I told you about the rather unethical way in which this website came about. But alas, before I could chomp down on the apple of sin like Adam in the Garden of Eden (I’m not religious), my moral compass told me nay.
And yet my dumb ass already bought the domain. So what do we do now? Well
What does any of this mean? Well, if you haven’t clicked off yet, I’m going to tell you what I plan on using this space for. But first, a touch of hubris. Let’s talk about me.
A Touch of Hubris
If you somehow stumbled upon this blog from the Internet nether and don’t already know who I am — Hi! My name’s Austin. By day I work as a media man for a local animal rescue — nbd. Four years ago, I started a YouTube channel called Tabletop Bro. I started it to talk about Indie TTRPG’s (D&D 5e is a TTRPG) and this old wargame I liked called Heroscape. Over the years it grew a somewhat decent following, and that’s PROBABLY how you’re gonna find this blog.
Anyway, the problem with the Tabletop Bro project is that I have a LOT of other interests besides just TTRPG’s. And I somewhat dug myself into a hole. I built an audience who follows me for indie TTRPG takes — especially regarding the fantasy PbtA system Dungeon World. But in truth, TTRPG’s are near the bottom of my interests list. There are far more people on YouTube, in the blogosphere, and even in my own community that I built, who are qualified to talk about the subject.
Anyway, I burnt the frick out. To the point where it’s an active struggle to even start making a video. Like right now, I would love to talk about the latest system that interests me — Nimble 2 — but for some reason I just… can’t. It’s some sort of weird block, I dunno. Hopefully this project will pull me out of the funk.
Speaking of which.
The Intent of This Blog
This shall be a space for me to write whatever I want about whatever I want. I have a great deal many interests and a great deal many things I’d like to talk about. It’s a digital notebook of sorts, a way for me to share my thoughts with a small sliver of the Internet who might be interested in what I have to say.
What topics/things are those? Well besides the obvious of talking about TTRPG’s and world building and fantasy:
- I’ve always had a passion for history — currently I’ve been on an Ancient History kick. For the past like three years I’ve had a latent obsession with the Diadochi, even though I haven’t gotten very far in my book on them.
- I’ve had a lifelong love of World of Warcraft. While I’m not currently playing it, I’ve also always enjoyed Guild Wars.
- I’ve played Tennis my entire life and have been watching more and more pro tennis. I’m personally a fan of what I call “dogshit tennis” aka the lowest level pro tournaments.
- I’ve enjoyed cycling for the past seven years. Exercise has always been important to me, and I’m getting back into lifting.
- Ever since like 2018 I’ve gotten FAIRLY into left-wing politics. The US’s descent into fascism will do that.
- I also LOVE ridiculous /r/curatedtumblr bullshit discourse. My favorite bit will always be the “Witch in the Alps” discourse — the post where the woman basically shat on Disco Elysium for her own cottagecore bullshit. Another really amusing one I’ve been enjoying lately is: “Is cranking it to knight porn anti-thetical to communism?” Ridiculous online left wing discourse has always tickled me because no one with these extreme opinions has any power — unlike extreme right wing takes.
So expect blog posts and excerpts on all of those topics. Really anything that interests me and that I want to share with you. Is it a hodgepodge? Yes. Am I expecting it to blow up? Not really. But I’m glad you’re here anyway.
