Friendly stalkers might have seen me muttering recently about virtual tabletops, as I seem to be going through another of my phases where I think about getting back into regular roleplaying – as in face to face, dice-rolling, character sheet-checking roleplaying. Old-school, in other words.

(Notice I said ‘think’, because these ideas rarely go anywhere. What I’ve discovered over the last few years is that for me, roleplaying as a hobby isn’t about the roleplaying anymore – it’s about the socialising, and that means my requirements for a gaming group have gotten tougher. To put it bluntly, I have to like people before I can enjoy roleplaying with them. Sounds obvious, I know, but I tend to forget that my best roleplaying memories were generally with people I knew as friends first and roleplayers second; it’s easy to delude myself into thinking that the activity will make me like someone, and that doesn’t happen.)

(Having said that, I’ve got some pretty fun memories of playing games with total strangers, as that seems to bring out the sociopathic side of my personality. Thinking about it, it’s surprising I’m not the world’s biggest online griefer.) Continue reading →