This Is My Job
If you missed out on the mayhem, I just participated in a Live Chat RPG on Suvudu with authors Ari Marmell, Diana Rowland, Jason Thompson, along with some fans. It was, as you might expect, utterly bizarre. You can click the link and scroll through the chat in its entirety, though it ran in real time from 2-4pm this afternoon.
Right in the middle of the business day.
I was unfamiliar with the rules of the game we were set to play (Skullduggery), or the other players/characters, and in true DM fashion, the King of RPGs waited till the last minute to give us the game info. We spent the first half hour of the chat just trying to work out the logistics of the chat software, and then everyone kind of went off in their own direction. We stumbled with frustrating slowness through the adventure, killing first and asking questions later (sorry about that), and in the end hadn’t accomplished much when we ran out of time. But we laughed. All the players were on a conference call, and we were laughing the whole time. I wish that audio feed had been connected to the chat. It was priceless.
In other words, it was just like every other RPG I ever played.
At one point,I said to Kaitlin Heller, the Del Rey editor hosting the festivities from the Random House offices, “This is your job, Kaitlin. You’re at work.” Everyone laughed uproariously. We all were, really, and took a moment to glory in it.
“Honestly,” Kaitlin pointed out, “work isn’t usually this fun.”
It’s true. It may seem like writing or editing fantasy is a blast, but for a good 10 hours or more a day, you’re really just staring at a screen or keyboard by yourself. Often it’s more like 14 hours a day, and trust me, no one’s in it for the money.
But sometimes there is a moment of real joy, when you realize your profession is something you love.
While we’re on the subject, check out this little gem: Seventh Circuit Rules D&D a Threat to Prison Security
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