The one thing I regret is not making up twenty characters across seven game titles and launching into fervent play right away. This was so much fun.

Here's a conversation with Ivan, following up on his comments (and video) in the Finding D&D series. I split the last bit off to join the SFTV RPG seminar too, so this was sort of an all-over-Adept-Play discussion. It's divided roughly into some "how we met D&D" talk, thoughts on fantasy in role-playing and fantasy vs. role-playing, essentialism's virtues and limitations, and a little bit of rather good contrasts in views about playing on purpose.

The topic is group preparation, when you spend some time together creating and customizing the setting and situation. Whether it's a pitch, a series of rules steps,a suggestion-and-approval process, or anything like that - we hit it from a lot of angles and a lot of examples.

Joining me are Ray, Herman, Ángel, Santiago, and Moreno, for what appears to be my first real success at production for a group activity. At last, no tiny head.

Here's the follow-up to the earlier post in which Jason D'Angelo talked about my little diagramming habit. I'd planned to get this content into the comments there, but the games are so interesting and the diagrams are - I think - illuminating enough to merit their own presentation.

I'll also emphasize the point I make toward the end, that each game's diagram differs from the others in terms of what the rules refer to. That's a big deal.