Kitchen Sink

Welcome to Dankelblog, my rantspace on the web.

I’m a software analyst living and working in the shadow of the world’s largest croquette wicket, also known as the St. Louis metro area.

For those of you looking for profound exposition on the nature of life or witty political commentary, this isn’t the blog you’re looking for. Dankelblarg is primarily a place for me to vent and talk about my gaming-related hobbies. I might occasionally throw something out that’s non-gaming related, but be prepared to see more gaming or painting related updates than anything else.

While I don’t yet qualify for gamer grognard status, I have been gaming since around 1991. I played in the typical junior high school type of campaign; we would build the best character we could and go out to kill some monsters and take their stuff. Gaming took place almost every weekend through high school, sometimes even more often through the summer. Since those days a lot has changed. Now gaming is every other weekend if I’m lucky (not counting some weekly Warmachine). While I’m not the hack-and-slasher I once was, I would still call myself a Dramatic Gamist.

I suppose the Dramatic Gamist label may need a little explaining. I very much want to create an interesting story with interesting character, but for me stories aren’t interesting without conflict and challenges. As much as I enjoy playing a deep character, role-playing in a campaign where character development takes place in a sterile environment where nothing dramatic ever happens simply isn’t satisfying. I need something going on to provide context to the interactions.

I’ll provide an example. Revealing my character is recently divorced and is somewhat angered he doesn’t see his kids enough is certainly an interesting development. But doing so in the middle of a zombie invasion where he realizes he’s never gong to see his daughters again had a much greater emotional impact.

This certainly doesn’t mean I want combat after combat – the challenges I look for can just as easily be the negotiation of a peace agreement or convincing an NPC to provide my character with the information I need. Completing either of these can result in just as strong of a sense of accomplishment as whacking some ork over the head with a sword.

Hopefully this will give a little insight as to me as a gamer, so as to provide a reference point for the opinions and views I express in future blargs.