Unpossible Journeys came into the world almost exactly ten years ago. At the time I called it Learn Tabletop RPGs. My intent in creating it was to give back to the hobby that had given so much to me, and to help interested people find out more about roleplaying, find games to play, and learn how to get started. Later I added a blog and over time added info on more games. I changed the name, which was not my brightest idea ever, but the site chugged along with occasional update. I felt it was making an impact, however small, and I enjoyed putting effort into it. The Only Constant is Change But ..read more

I’ve run some campaigns that have gone for more than 50 sessions. I wouldn’t call myself an expert at running long campaigns, because there are some truly epic campaigns that have been going for hundreds of sessions. But for me, these techniques have been helpful: Organize Around Themes For example, in starting a Degenesis campaign a few years back, I set the theme as loyalty. I wanted to put the player characters into situations where their primary loyalties (to cult, to family, to home, to humanity) would be tested. Further, I wanted to pit those loyalties against each other. What do the PC ..read more

We Hold These Truths Self-Evident Prehistoric humans were pretty dull in many respects. They lived in small bands, each ruled by a chief. For tens of thousands of years they roamed around hunting and gathering. Not only did their technology not change much during that time, they never imagined any sort of political system more sophisticated than “Ug is strongest, so we listen to him.” History, and civilization as we know it, truly began when humans realized that if they cultivated crops, they could stay in one place and enjoy the safety and security of permanent cities. But with those benefit ..read more

Tabletop roleplaying is rapidly moving out of a liminal territory where in-person and online play stand in rough parity with each other, and into a realm where online platforms are the default. This migration was already underway well before the pandemic, and the last three years have certainly accelerated it. There are many reasons for the shift, from improvements in technology to the difficulty of finding other gamers within a given geographic range, to our societal retreat from in-person socializing. But the further down this path we go, the greater the risk that we’ll lose the essence of t ..read more

Explaining tabletop roleplaying in a way that newcomers can understand is a daunting task. I know because I’ve been attempting to do just that with this site for years. A recent video from Shut Up & Sit Down lays out the basics of tabletop RPG in a lighthearted, engaging, approachable fashion. I’ve never come across a video that handles the subject nearly as well. If you‘ve been wondering what the fuss around tabletop roleplaying is all about, drop everything and check out this video ..read more

Even as someone who witnessed it firsthand, the shift in tabletop roleplaying culture over the last forty years can be difficult to define. But there is one central factor that influences all the other changes. The hobby has changed in so many ways, but perhaps the most profound shift has been driven not from within the hobby, but from the broader social effects of ubiquitous information. Eighties, I’m Living in the Eighties When I was playing tabletop RPGs with my high school friends in the early 1980s, information was scarce. And I don’t just mean that there were only three broadcast TV chan ..read more

If you’ve been on Twitter lately you’ve probably seen tabletop RPG people freaking out about an opinion piece by Russell Moore in Christianity Today Called Fantasy Role-Playing Is Hurting America, as if this is the harbinger of a new Satantic Panic. Thankfully the thrust of the article really has nothing to do with tabletop roleplaying, and is worth reading even if like me, you’re not a Christian. First, let’s dispense with the idea that this is an attack on D&D and other roleplaying games, desktop or otherwise. Moore writes: It turns out actual fantasy role-playing – whether it be D ..read more

This site has been around in one form or another since 2013. For a variety of reasons (some pandemic-related, some not) recently I haven’t given it the attention it deserves. I’m happy to announce the love is back. The new UJ is visually straightforward by design; my intent is to provide useful info and inspiring ideas, not to keep you engaged as long as possible. Speaking of info and ideas, I’ll be posting more regularly now that the site has been converted into the new format. If you’d like to discuss any of what you find here, check out the small but mighty UJ Discord. We talk about tableto ..read more

TL;DR As a game master the best present I could ever receive is a setting book that makes me feel that if I got on a horse and rode far enough, I could reach the places it describes. I could smell the dust in the air, hear the sounds of its people, and see the sights change as I moved through it. Give me a world in motion, with fascinating, engaging NPCs, architectural oddities, weird accidents of history, seething tensions, and unexpected alliances. Drop story hooks on every page – some I can riff off on the fly, some so big they could propel multi-session adventures. Lure me with entici ..read more

This is a first look at a draft of Rune & Steel, a tabletop RPG that is being Kickstarted by the father-son team of Ryan and Kael Shuck. The game aims to provide a rich fantasy setting based on Norse mythology. Because this is still a work in progress I’ll hit a few aspects of the game I find most interesting, rather than attempt anything like a review. Setting When I encountered the Kickstarter for this game, my first thought was of The 13th Warrior. I don’t know enough about the Viking era to know how far that film strayed from the factual past, but it did make me wonder about the rolep ..read more