Sometimes games are simply as good as it gets

This is my favorite moment. I'm running a game and a player rolls their dice, and it comes up complicated. Time slows down. My mind recedes into that primordial darkness where good ideas grow like cave moss. And sometimes—not every time, just sometimes—it comes back with the perfect line, something balanced right on the razor-edge of shock and delight. In that moment, my fingers crackle with lightning, and my belly burns with fire, and life is simply as good as it gets.

I started playing games in 2016 because I wanted to be a writer. That's a little confusing for a couple of reasons. Firstly, 2016 was only last week. Secondly, surely if I wanted to be a writer, I would write. This is a common misunderstanding. Like the saying goes, nothing cleans a house faster than an unfinished novel. By believing that the secret to writing was engaging in some esoteric practice that didn't involve writing, I was proudly participating in a tradition that goes back to Sumeria in 4000 BC. And the only reason it doesn't go back further was because writing hadn't been invented yet.

The important thing is that I discovered that games were good.