Introduction: The Dreaded Gug

 Hello! I am the Dreadedgug, a long time TTRPG player and fan. I first started rolling dice in 1981, when I was 11 years old, and I never stopped. In my TTRPG career, I've played D&D (1st, 2nd. 3rd, and 5th editions), Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer, old school Gamma World, FASA's Star Trek, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Dragonbane (which is a new RPG out of Sweden, based on an old Chaosium iteration of Magic World/Runequest). I play with the same group of miscreants that I've played with my whole gaming life: my little brother, my middle and high school friends, and my friend from college. I am normally the forever DM, but in the past year or so, I've gotten to be a player pretty consistently, which is fun (but I still prefer to be the game master...)

I am a teacher in the greater Boston area, and have been for 25 years. I am a happily married dad with two lovely daughters. I am also a veteran, which will matter in a moment. 

My friends call me a game-whore because I am forever seeking the perfect RPG system. What that means, exactly (the 'perfect game system' part, not the 'whore' part) I'm not sure, and I hope to explore that a little bit in this blog. 

To begin with, you've probably heard the saying "Never Yuck Someone's Yum." In other words, I'm not here to convince anyone to like or dislike a game system: you do you, boo, and have a ball. With that said, I have things I like and dislike about various TTRPGs, and I am going to poke around (and spend money) until I find the one that works best for me. 

With all of that said, this blog will focus mainly on Troll Lords Castles&Crusades, a system I only recently discovered, and which I find quite...intriguing. And, right out the gate, one of the things I like is that the Troll Lords offer a deep and generous discount to active service members and veterans of the United States military. That's awesome, and here is why: it's nice to get a discount, but I honestly don't need it. What's way more important to me is that this small company is honoring those who served, and who are still serving. Without putting too fine a point on it, in the last several years, I have found the political back and forth on social media sites regarding TTRPGs to be exhausting (I'll write more about that another time). The fact that these guys are recognizing service people means a lot to me. 

So yeah, there it is. Me blogging about TTRPGs as I investigate a new system (new to me, at least!).