I'm at Origins in Columbus, OH. It seems to me like a place where a lot of people from all across the sex/gender spectrum feel comfortable being their genuine selves. I don't know everyone's story but I've seen a *lot* of people signalling pretty openly about things from kink to sexual orientation to gender identity. There are a lot of rainbows here and while some of them are attached to unicorns or rain clouds, many of them are on lapel pins, suspenders, decals on laptops, etc. There are also the more subtle things like hearing to 50-something guy who was teaching me the character creation process for a new (to me) RPG, excitedly talking about a recent character of his, who was a 20-something woman who had been a star athlete in high school and who now used those gifts and training to fight crime. There are enough people walking around in cosplay or fantasy armor that I can't always spot the kinksters, but they're definitely here. That (all) is the Good News. I spent part of today trying to find a friend of mine. I knew what company he was working for and I went looking for him at their booth (vendor hall isn't open yet, but Iget access during set-up). He wasn't around. We exchanged some messages and I found out where he was -- or where I thought he was. I wandered the Gaming Hall looking for him, going up and down 1-2 aisles where I thought he would be. I thought I spotted him a couple of times -- because he's a P.O.C., and there were few enough that any time I saw someone it was noteworthy. Now, it's early in the con and that means there are fewer people here overall, but that shouldn't change the proportional makeup of the people here. And I know we're in Ohio, but I also know this event draws people from all over the country. There are all different aspects of Gaming represent here -- trading card games, LARPs, Escape rooms, board games, kids games, social deduction games, RPGs, etc. I'm not casting aspersions on any one segment of the the gaming world -- but I think we all can and should do better. I don't have a solution and I don't have it in my power to fix it. But I'm hoping that by gently pointing out the wildly disproportionate representation here -- at least for one segment of the population -- we'll all try to do better.

Just curious -- I generally have instrumental music on in the background when I write (I find stuff with lyrics distracts me). I tend to listen to Danny Elfman on shuffle when I'm writing. I know a lot of people like Spotify stations but I don't use them because they're evil (you gotta pick your battles). Does anyone else listen to music and -- if so -- do you have a go to artist or album?

The latest session of my long term campaign was yesterday. Two of the players were trying to infiltrate the rich side of town and quickly realized they would need to procure a change of clothes sp they would blend in. I had to improvise a merchant NPC on the spot. Being an avid fan of STP and his discworld series, my mind reached for the only character that fit the bill - Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler 😄. I played the character up just as he was in the books. On of the advantages of being older (I'm in my 50's, most of my players are 20s/early 30s) and from another country (I'm from NZ but live in Utah) is that I have been exposed to cultural influences that my players haven't. Not a single one of them has read Discworld, so Cut-me-own-throat Diibbler is completely new to them, and I could shamelessly use (rip off) the character without them knowing. I hope that one day at least one of them reads the books and smiles knowingly.

Heya! Been taking a long break from tabletop DMing but some of my coworkers have expressed wanting to follow through on the idea of playing D&D so I want to give it another shot. Only thing is, 2/4 people interested have never played before, and the other two have done maybe 2 sessions so they're very new. As a newer DM without a *ton* of experience, I'm a bit worried about making the campaign accessible for them and teaching them when I honestly don't understand everything myself haha. With all that said, anyone have any good tips for helping new players get their bearings? Are there certain things you do with veterans as opposed to newbies? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

260+ pages?! Is there an audiobook? Maybe I’ll wait for the Netflix series ;)