[UPDATE: there's a survey out to see if we can find a time for the Productivity Accountability Hour that works for a multiple number of people. If you're interested in the Productivity Hour, please go indicate your general availability at https://www.when2meet.com/?36132815-O46RO The system as two limitations: it's binary (you're either available or your not); the time zone is EST, so you're going to need to do your own math.] I enjoy @Jonah Fishel 's Coffee Talks on Friday, and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in finding a time to do a shared hour of focused work. When I've done them in the past, they work this way: everyone jumps on a call/meeting and briefly introduces themselves, their project, and what specifically they're hoping to accomplish in the next hour (so rather than "prep for my next session" it might be something like "create 3 forest encounters for my next session"; rather than "work on the TTRPG I'm writing" it might be "edit the section on ranged combat in the TTRPG I'm writing"). At the end of the hour, we all meet up again, talk about whether we achieved our goal or not, and what obstacles came up -- and maybe ask for help in overcoming the challenges if that seems appropriate. I'm East Coast USA, but would be willing to do this in my afternoon if there were a bunch of folks in Europe who were interested. I also might be in interested in doing it in an evening, but I feel like a lot of us already have evening commitments. If you're interested, drop a comment below with some general availability preferences.

I just came across this great video using collaborative campaign building. His videos are very good. Simple, visually nice & minimalistic. Easy to follow. I recommend following his channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfdCBauL6lo

I use AI a lot for RPGs, in my case DnD 5e. I’m confident some of you hate AI and for good reasons. Some may be unaware. We may know people who let it replace their own creativity. I brainstorm with it. For example, we had Session -1 last week. It my first time facilitating it and I’m sure it needs inprovement. We developed factions. Well…we developed a ton of ideas for factions. I will use one as an example. The players feel done, so I want to organize their faction ideas into something cohesive and then ask them to edit it (we need one more short Session -1) So I said to AI, “Now let’s create factions. I’ll give you the notes from Session -1 and then let’s discuss the faction. Discuss! I don’t need you to create a faction for me.” Then I gave it these notes: The world is a little bit like Harry Potter, with some people that know about magic and most people do not. - This faction wants everyone to know about magic, wants to expose magic and make it public. They want power and to control it - They are hunting the party. Opposed to the magic group and the cleric group that dislikes use of magic not sanctioned by the gods. They are working behind the scenes — working with the assassin’s guild. It’s a network of cells, not centralized AI asked about their motivation, what they thought was wrong with the world, and what their methods were. Also, why are they hunting the party? Finally, it asked how united or decentralize the cells are. I used voice-to-text to give it a long answer in response to everything it provided. 1. It clearly didn’t understand my notes because my notes are out of context. So I explained them. 2. It asked a lot of really good questions and made some suggestion suggestions. 3. I disagreed with a lot of the suggestions, liked some of them, but the best part was that it launched my own creativity. I know all the other background for this world and the probing questions and ideas allowed me to really think about what the players wanted.

Thanks to everyone who made it out today! Here are a few things we talked about: - An post with an excellent comment string by @Doug Peterman about play-by-post games (PBP games): skool.com/game-masters-laboratory/pbp?p=4b43a12f - A live-game events company in Pittsburgh that connects players and DMs at local spots: dungeonsndrafts.com/areaEvents/default - @Elizabeth Roberts 's new company for connecting local Pittsburgh players, DMs, and games: QuestYinzGames.com - @Jordan Peacock runs 10 paid games a week - for those of you looking to go semi-pro or pro, it might be worth checking out how he does it: linktr.ee/sortilege - A resources for quickly building balanced encounters: freshcutgrass.app - The Sablewood intro adventure for Daggerhear teaches the GM as well as the players as you go: daggerheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Sablewood-05-20-25.pdf - People will use DnD 5e to run anything... why?? For example: sw5e.com/

Something that has always been a part struggle as I get older is finding a group. Not just a one shot. But a real campaign group. With my schedule and living on the West Coast. And to be honest I am use to a gaming on every other Saturday. I know that might be old school. But beside when I was in grade school for a sleepover. I never played during a week. For my mind set weekdays is for school and sleep and some TV hehe. When Civid happen Before then I never thought of playing during the weekdays. And boy did I do a lot of gaming during that time. But now we are back to a similar normal life. So my weekdays is too busy or too tired to even think of gaming. So besides solo gaming I have tried. But the thrill of a group it is ok. So I have thought about play by post. But my experience with playing what will is beyond zero. I got some serious questions. How does combat and a social reaction work. I have a hard time seeing how that could work well. I feel like I want it to work but I have a hard time seeing how it works. Help me I want this to work.